Beware! Don't fall in trap of advance fee fraud - Learn to nail 419 Nigerian fraudsters

Getting emails from unknown sources with offers which are 'too good to be true', and finally losing money into the hands of advance fee fraudsters are becoming common in India. The mailer may send you some offers which are too good to believe and asking some processing fee as payment before crediting a whopping amount into your account. They may ask you to give your bank account details along with your name, date of birth etc., which are enough to fish out money from your bank account.

Speaking on the kind of fraud which falls under the Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Pavan Duggal, a Delhi-based cybercrime expert told Zee Business Online, "Advance Fee Fraud or 419 Nigerian Fraud is like putting a fishing net into the ocean. In such fraud, fraudsters typically send e-mails luring offers which are hard to believe and ask you to give your details by clicking on a given link below. By the time you click on that link all your date available on the system or on the mobile phone becomes available to them." 

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Elaborating upon how do the fraudsters work under advance fee fraud category Duggal said, "When a person clicks on the given link, the malware starts getting installed on his or her system or mobile phone. And once the malware is installed, it becomes easier for the fraudsters to fish out all kinds of data that includes economic or financial data as well. After doing that they do the card cloning of the victims debit and credit card and fish out money in a very small time."

Pavan Duggal, who is President at cyberlaw.com, added that in 419 Nigerian Fraud, mail senders ask for some money as processing fee in advance that's why it's also called 'advance fee fraud' too. But, for that also, the mail sender asks the victim to click on the given link for payment and fish out data through malware attack. To avoid such frauds in future Duggal suggested people install anti-malware software on the system and mobile phones. This anti-malware software is easily available on google without any charges.