These days scammers are targeting people with a new type of call forwarding scam. In view of this, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center has issued a warning. It has been told that scammers are targeting people with the help of basic features like USSD code and they do not even need internet access to do scams in this way. Let us know how this scam works and how it can be avoided.
How does the scam work?
In this scam, cyber criminals pretend to be couriers or delivery agents and call people. During the call, they are asked to dial a USSD code and mobile number starting with 21 on the phone to confirm or reschedule the parcel delivery, which is usually with the scammer. As soon as this code is dialled, call forwarding is enabled on the user’s mobile and all incoming calls and messages go to the scammer. With this, cyber criminals can do any banking transaction and take over all their accounts without the victim knowing.
What are the methods of prevention?
The government agency said in its warning that USSD codes work without internet and it is very difficult to detect them after activation. In many cases, the user comes to know about it when there is a bank transaction or any other activity in the account. To avoid this, people have been advised not to dial USSD codes starting with 21, 61 and 67. If call forwarding is enabled on a user’s number, then he can cancel all call forwarding services by dialing ##002# code.
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