New con in town: Beware of installing remote desktop applications on your mobile phone 

Conmen are using remote desk apps to defraud people and withdraw money from accounts

Earlier this month, Rajesh, a sales executive from Jeppu in Mangaluru, ordered a dress online. Upon finding the dress low in quality, Mr. Rajesh returned it and was waiting for a refund of the amount paid.

On December 4, Mr. Rajesh received a call in which the caller said he is an executive from the online store and sought details of the account to which the amount needs to be refunded. Before initiating the refund, the caller asked Mr. Rajesh to install a remote desk application onto his phone. After installing the application, Mr. Rajesh shared the access passcode with the caller.

Having gained access to the mobile phone, the caller asked Mr. Rajesh to open his wife’s account in Canara Bank and share the account number and IFSC code. After depositing ₹1 to the account, the caller proceeded to remove ₹4,999, ₹7,190 and ₹ 4,400, thus withdrawing the entire ₹16,580 in that account.

Mr. Rajesh immediately called the National Cyber Crime Portal on 1930 and submitted details about the fraud. The portal raised a cyber crime incident report and forwarded it to the Cyber Crime Police Station in Mangaluru which registered the complaint on December 6.

The cyber crime police said conning gullible people through remote desk applications is the latest means by which money is being fraudulently withdrawn from bank accounts. “Sooner the victim approaches us, better are the chances of getting back the amount that is withdrawn,” said an official from Mangaluru city Cyber Crime Police Station.

On an average, four complaints of loss of money and other cyber crimes are registered every day at the station. Some approach the police directly, while others go through the cyber crime portal, the official said.

Cyber expert and author of Cyber Safe Girl, G. Ananth Prabhu said conmen make victims install remote desk applications such as Anydesk, Teamviewer and Remote PC. “Once the cyber criminal gets full access to the mobile or desktop through these applications, he can use it to steal data or carry out bank transactions,” Mr. Prabhu told The Hindu.