Mobile phone users

The Times of India has reported how a  Nigerian fraudster  duped a Hyderabad  city based techie to the tune of Rs 1.4 lakh(about $2,200) by stealing his bank account details after infiltrating his mobile phone with a malware MMS – `greeting’.

The victim is Srinivas, 28, a software engineer from Kukatpally.

The Indian newspaper gives a narration of the fraud:

A fortnight ago, Srinivas got an email from `IT Department’, informing that he was eligible for tax refund. The mail was sent by one Tony, a cyber fraudster operating from Nigeria. In the email, the fraudster asked Srinivas to provide his bank account details, including debit card number, CVV code, date of expiry etc.

Thinking that the email was sent by IT department, Srinivas gave away all the details of his bank account along with the debit card details. Using the debit card details given by Srinivas, the Nigerian fraudster tried to do online purchases and conduct third party cash transfers but could not succeed as Srinivas has One Time Password (OTP) security check active on his online card transactions.

To overcome the security feature, a week ago, Tony sent a `greeting’ – a MMS malware to Srinivas’ mobile phone. When Srinivas opened the MMS, there was no content visible to him but the malware installed itself in the phone and gave complete access over his phone to Tony.

Using the debit card details of Srinivas, the Nigerian fraudster then purchased three laptops worth Rs 70,000 on Flipkart and transferred Rs 70,000 more to various bank accounts in Mumbai through third party transfer.

“During each transaction, OTP goes to Srinivas’ mobile phone but through the `greeting’ malware, Tony routed the OTP SMS to his phone and finished the transactions,” Cyber Crime ACP S Jayaram told TOI.

Srinivas realized about the fraud when he started receiving emails and SMSes from filpkart and the bank about money transfer and product purchases. He approached police a week ago and immediately a special team went to Mumbai, where three laptops purchased on flipkart were supposed to be delivered.

With the help of flipkart staff, police nabbed M Deshpande (original name Basappa) at Mahim railway station when he came to receive three laptops. Basappa knew Tony when the latter was living in Mumbai two years ago and since then he has been working for the Nigerian fraudster for commission. Basappa alias Deshpande along with three seized laptops was produced before the local court in Hyderabad on Thursday and remanded in judicial custody.