Centre Issues Alert Against Fake E-Mails; Know How To Detect Spam

New Delhi: In the wake of several fraudulent e-mails—attributing to government officials and probe agencies—being sent to people, the Centre has issued a high alert notice.

According to an IANS report, such fake emails have letters bearing the names and signatures of Sandeep Khirwar, ADG, Cyber Crime and Economic Offence, Delhi Police Headquarters, Delhi and that of Anupam Prakash, Joint Secretary (COFEPOSA), Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB), Intelligence Bureau and Cyber Cell, Delhi.

According to a statement by the Finance Ministry, such emails raise allegations of child pornography, sexual explicit exhibit, grooming, besides other charges against the receiver of the email. The department also presented a copy of such fake letters.

“The fraudsters have used different e-mail addresses for sending the fake e-mails with attachment. Police authorities have been alerted for taking necessary action in the matter. Receiver of any such email should be aware about this fraudulent attempt. It is informed to general public that any such e-mails with attachment should not be responded to and such case may be reported to the nearest police station/cyber police station,” the statement read.

How do detect phishing/scam messages?
As shared by the Microsoft, here are some ways to identify scam or phishing messages or e-mails:
1) Urgent calls to action or threats: The users must be suspicious of messages that claim that they need to click, call or open an attachment immediately. Often, it is cited that they need to act to either claim a reward or avoid a penalty or legal action.
2) First time or infrequent senders or senders marked as external: It isn’t unusual to get mails from first time senders, but this can also be a sign of phishing attempt.
3) Spelling and bad grammar: If the email has obvious grammatical and spelling errors, it may be a scam as professional organizations have teams to proof-check and compose emails with correct usage of words.
4) Mismatched email domains: If the e-mail claims to be from a reputed company but has been sent from a different domain and not the official domain of the company, there are reasons to doubt.
5) Suspicious links and unexpected attachments: It is advisable not to click on any suspicious link or open irrelevant and unreliable attachments.