Some Mobile Net Banking users have come to know that this convenience can hurt them badly. They find out at great expense that thieves have made this facility as safe and convenient for themselves as for the users. They have experienced the nightmare of seeing all their hard-earned savings vanish into thin air!
The scam starts with crooks hijacking a-carefully-selected victim’s cell phone number. With this, they get access to all SMS’s sent to the user especially those sent by his/her banks. The opportunity comes when the banks send passwords to authorize fund transfer as requested for by the account holder.
The robbers pounce on the offered chance and act immediately on the SMS. Posing as the account holder, they request for a substantial fund transfer from the account to an illegal account. The depositor remains unaware till he/she either logs onto their account or when the bank send them a message that the requested fund transfer has been completed.
But by this time, the criminals would have flown with their loot. This puts the account-holder, the Bank and the cell phone company in a situation where nobody can do anything except blame one another.
The cell phone company claims that the connection was compromised before the SIM swop was done. The banks pass the buck to the user by blaming him/her for parting with personal information by:
1. Leaving ATM transaction slips irresponsibly at the ATM’s for thieves to pick up.
2. Using net cafes with suspect online security for conducting transactions.
3. Innocently downloading key-logging software on their personal computers. This permitted all keystrokes to be passed onto the scammers and consequently gave them access to the critical information.
Banks may be doing what they can to curb the menace. But, in this one-up game between service-providers and scammers, the latter will summon all their cunning to obtain easy money. If you don’t want to get caught in between, the only thing you can do is to be that much more cautious while using these modern conveniences.