Social engineering finds a prominent place in all the cyber crimes being committed on a regular basis. Rather than hacking the security in a difficult and arduous manner, it takes more time, effort and at times needs very high end technical and also financial resources. Unfortunately, while we talk about it, no efforts are being either by the government or the cyber security regulators or the private companies. While the issues are known, what is needed is a concerted effort in a technically comprehensive manner, which needs to start the multiagency, proactive collaboration, with a neat blueprint and the will to deliver.
Moving ahead of social engineering now we are in the stage of hacking of the brain. The success which the cyber crooks have achieved recently in hacking the thought process of the well educated and the professionals are seen to be believed. The sad part is that there seems to a concerted efforts to target the most vulnerable, the elderly and they have been pretty successful with it. The nature of having trust, being unfamiliar with tech, a desire to make some more money or a neat sum out of their available resources lands them into a precarious predicament.
Recently, a trader in Kolkata was duped of Rs. 1.5 crore. Having got the funds, the cyber crooks claimed he was digitally arrested related to illegal investment activities. Police now suspect this incident is part of a broader racket targeting older individuals. No arrests have been made yet. Scammers first lure victims with promises of high returns, then create panic by impersonating law enforcement via calls and video meetings. They manipulate victims into transferring large sums. This psychological ploy keeps victims compliant under fear of arrest.
Senior citizens are prime targets due to their accumulated savings and limited familiarity with online frauds. Kolkata authorities are investigating whether this is linked to a larger syndicate operating across India. In a recent case a 71-year-old woman lost ₹57.7 lakh to scammers pretending to be IT and RBI officials. In another Pune case an 85-year-old man was ensnared in a matrimonial scam, losing ₹11.45 lakh. We have a case from Noida in Feb-March 2025 wherein a 78-year-old man was held for 15 days in a “digital arrest” simulation by fraudsters posing as police, CBI, TRAI, transferring ₹3.14 crore. And we have numerous more, but who will stem the digital rot?
THE LAMEDUCK APPROACH OF POLICE AND CYBER SECURITY AGENCIES ARE NO MATCH TO THE CYBER CROOKS ALL COMPREHENSIVE SKILLS AND FOCUS.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.