4 things you should keep in mind during the ongoing pandemic to avoid identity theft

COVID-19: The Coronavirus outbreak has crippled our world in the ways we would only have witnessed in our nightmares. Apart from the collapsing economy, one major change which this pandemic caused in our lives is that it made us completely dependent on the internet for all of our daily work. We’re so busy working from home that we don’t even keep in mind the security and authenticity of the website we encounter.

Just like you, the hackers are also busy working from home. Below is a list of some techniques employed by hackers to steal your confidential information during this pandemic:

1. Fake PMCARES UPI accounts are being circulated via fraudulent agencies over apps and emails to steal your money. Note that the authentic UPI ID for donating to the pandemic help fund is pmcares@sbi. Report this to cyber-cell if you encounter anything different than this.
2. Fake Coronavirus tracking apps are quite active these days which serve no purpose other than stealing sensitive personal data from your device. A few of such apps are Spymax, Corona Live 1.1, etc. Beware of such apps and only use the Aarogya Setu app by The Govt. of India for this purpose.
3. Always use end to end encrypted video conferencing methods for attending your office meetings and never share meeting links via social media channels. The popular video conferencing platform: Zoom, was found to have various security flaws recently.
4. Similar to fake PMCARES accounts, fake versions of WHO(World Health Organization) are also being spammed in order to phish your credit card & Bank account details. So please be careful with the emails you open and onsite advertisements you click.

Keep a close watch on your financial assets continuously like your bank and credit card statements in order to avert any forthcoming fraudulent activity with your money. Also never share your Govt. ID cards over insecure channels because if they fall in the wrong hands(hackers) you might become a victim of Identity Theft.

Protect and monitor your Debit Card, Credit Card numbers, Bank Accounts, PAN, Social Media Accounts, Email Ids, and much more with IDFence, and ensure that your data doesn’t wander in the wrong places such as Dark Web, illegal theft forums, etc.

 And most importantly, STAY HOME STAY SAFE.