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Im sharing this to create awareness and hopefully help others avoid the same situation.

Recently, our company’s systems were compromised in a cyber attack. The attackers gained access to critical data and then contacted us demanding payment in Bitcoin in exchange for restoring the data and not misusing it further.

Under pressure and with business continuity at risk, we unfortunately paid the amount they demanded. Despite this, the attackers did not return the data, nor did they provide any valid decryption keys or proof of deletion. Communication stopped shortly after the payment was made.

Key takeaways from our experience:

• Paying a ransom does not guarantee data recovery.

• These attackers cannot be trusted, even if they promise cooperation.

I received a text message from the government stating that I was yet to pay my taxes, but I knew that I’d already done so. Turns out it was a scam so I deleted the message.

An international transaction of a little less than INR 3,00,000 was being undertaken using my credit card. Since in internation transactions (at least some of them), there is no OTP that comes, I would ordinarily not have realised it. Thanks to the HDFC monitoring team who reached out to me in real time for verification of whether I was undertaking the transaction and upon my denial stopping the transaction from occurring. Since that day, I keep my international transactions off and only activate it when I am either undertaking one or travelling to another country.

Increasingly, people are creating fake WhatsApp / Telegram groups and are posting fraudulent messages by impersonating private equity funds and, or, its partner(s) and/or holding themselves out as affiliated to such private equity fund. These messages state that an official of the private equity fund will share daily market information and trading tactics and promise monetary bonus upon joining the group or state that the private equity fund is seeking individual investors. Lot of people end up investing into fake groups and lose money.

In public spaces, scammers may approach you stating they don't have cash to pay for their purchase. They are willing to make an online payment to you, if you can pay them cash. You agree and after checking your bank name, they act as if they are making the online payment, using your mobile number. You get an SMS on your phone, which appears to show that you have received the payment in your bank account. You pay the cash to the scamster and walk away. Later when you check your bank account you don't see any entry for this amount. When you recheck the SMS you realize it was a fake. Beware!

Scammers manage to get hold of your income tax filings and then call you on WhatsApp stating they are from the Income Tax department. They claim that there are issues with your income tax filings and a notice will be sent shortly. However if you try to ask more details, they sense your anxiety and exploit the situation. Hence best to tell them that you will review the formal notice and respond. No government official will anyway formally call for such matters, definitely not on WhatsApp.

There are scammers targeting vehicle owners who have taken a loan for the vehicle purchase. The scammer gets hold of the loan information and then targets the vehicle owner on the road, by sending goons who extort money claiming the vehicle owner has not settled the loan dues and they will confiscate the vehicle unless they are paid a fee. The vehicle owner is forced to pay the fee to avoid embarrassment and disruption. But when they later clarify with their bank, they realize there are no loan dues and they were duped by a scamster.

Given the long waiting period for US visa appointment, there are scammers in telegram groups that promise to get you an earlier slot in exchange of money. They generally offer to do it at a low price and on the basis that payment is to be made after the earlier slot has been received. As a consequence of which many people agree to provide their login credentials to these scammers who then change the details and demand a higher amount to simply return the account to the original applicant. Since the applicant would have already paid an amount between INR 15K-INR 20K as part of the application cost, they generally agree to pay the scammers and get back control of the account. I was offered a similar deal but thanks to being aware of this; I refused to engage further.

People randomly calling saying that an old policy has matured and I need to pay a proportionately small amount to get the benefit of the larger sum. Upon probing realised that they were just scamsters trying to use generic responses and lure people into paying them money with the hope of getting a larger sum for an investment they never made.