Ransoms and Hackers!
In real world there are thieves and dacoits. In I.T there are black hat hackers. Black hat hackers search for weaknesses in applications/systems and use those weaknesses for hacking applications with malicious purposes. The intention is malicious i.e could be for money or for cover-up or for impersonation and identity theft etc…
For example a hacked email account can be used for the following purposes:
- Writing recommendation letters — seems very small crime but no very big crime because ultimately leads to identity theft. In this case, the sender would never know. Solution: Platforms like LinkedIn.
- Opening of accounts on 3rd party shady website(s).
- Sending email by impersonating the owner of the account.
Then some hackers encrypt hack into laptops and encrypt important files and then ask for ransom. (In other words high-tech begging).
I.T industry has seen such incidents and the costs of such crimes are increasing at an alarmingly high rate.
How do these hackers cover up tracks? They open bank accounts on someone else’s name, they then send the money into other smaller bank accounts that are also on other people’s name. Then they hide, shadow and impersonate someone else. For example, let’s say they bought something on Deliveroo, they would buy on someone else’s address and even virtual name. Deliveroo provides clear driver location information. Thanks to Coronavirus, they wear facemasks and collect the deliveries at someone else’s address like down the street. Or cash transactions but for safety, impersonating other people etc… Clean money and clean people have same name on payment instruments, accounts and identity proofs. Shady, shadowy people have different names on payment instruments, accounts and identity proofs. In very rare cases shadowy people try to frame others, specifically people like me who are trying to expose them. And here is the worst excuse they say — someone shared with them i.e vaata (Telugu language) aka waters.
That’s how hackers, thieves, criminals operate. In India nowadays this has become a big crime and most likely worldwide. Even real-life crimes such as obtaining small loans or OTP theft for bank account opening or obtaining loans on someone else’s properties. All of these are thieves, dacoits and hacker activities. In other words these people are in the 3rd stage of borrow, beg, steal stages. If people know what’s going around my identity and here in London, some people can make guesses about whom are in the 3rd stage ;)
