Rising Phishing Attacks In India: This Is How You Can Stay Safe From Tech Support Scam

KOLKATA: Phishing is a type of social manipulation in which an attacker sends a phoney message to a target in the hopes of obtaining confidential material or deploying harmful software on the victim’s network, such as ransomware.

In India, phishing attacks are on a steady rise. Cyber criminals are increasingly employing new and inventive methods to trick unsuspecting people into opening a malicious email or clicking on a link that contains malware that can compromise personal information and result in financial losses.

According to Microsoft’s 2021 Global Tech Support Scam Research report, between January 2020 and May 2021, consumers in India had a comparatively high scam encounter rate of 69 per cent. This means that nearly half of the consumers polled were duped into continuing with the scam, and 31% of those who did so lost money in 2021, up 17 percentage points from 2018.

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According to the report, seven out of ten Indian consumers were scammed by a tech support scammer in the previous year. With the rise in cybercrime, it’s more vital than ever for people to understand how to be safe online.

Microsoft Security suggests five techniques to prevent becoming a victim of a tech support scam:

1. Be aware of unsolicited tech support: Unsolicited tech support calls are never made by legitimate service providers or companies. They will not call you to offer tech support, if you have not requested it. Scammers frequently use false Caller IDs.

2. Don’t pay with cryptocurrency or gift cards: If you’ve requested tech help, you’ll be told if there will be a fee upfront, and that fee will never be in the form of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or gift cards.

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3. Ignore pop-ups that demand immediate action: Phone numbers are never included in error messages sent by respectable tech companies. Using Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, browsers such as Microsoft Edge block is known to support fraud sites.

4. Protect your personal data: Legitimate tech support will never ask for your password, Aadhar number, or other sensitive information. If you’ve already been the victim of a tech support scam, delete any apps that the con artists forced you to install, run a security scan, reset your device, and change your passwords. If you’ve already made a payment, contact your credit card company right once.

5. Verify the legitimacy of all apps on your device: Downloading software from a third-party website or a link in an email is never a good idea. Only use official websites, approved partners, or digital distribution platforms like the Microsoft Store to get the software. Only download from the official app store on your mobile devices.

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