‘Silent Stealing’: The Evolving Tactics Of Cyber Criminals

“Evolution is a gradual and ongoing process.” This statement is universal and isn’t just limited to biology. Just like humans have evolved over the years, criminals have also been evolving. 

Remember the days when there used to be headlines like – “Hacker stole Rs. 10 Lakhs” or “Hacker stole man’s credentials and stole Rs. 5 Lakhs from the man’s bank account”? 

Well, gone are the days when criminals used to break the headlines for their mega scams involving millions worth of money. Cyber criminals have now resorted to a new and more effective method of stealing: ‘Silent Stealing’.

Silent Stealing: What it actually is?

Cyber criminals, instead of robbing people’s money worth thousands, have now started to steal a very small amount of money. This prevents the victims from alerting the officials because people generally do not take the pain of reporting such petty crimes. 

So, what does that mean? It means that hackers and cyber criminals have now hit the jackpot, because instead of stealing a huge amount from strangers, they now steal very little money from individuals. Losing a few coins is not a big deal for most people, so they would just forget about it. This act of stealing little amounts of money is also called ‘Going down market’.

Why is Silent Stealing so effective?

Suppose you’re at a carnival with hundreds of people around you and you lose your wallet that had Rs. 10,000. What will you do? You will start panicking and you’ll run around trying to find your wallet because Rs. 10,000 is a huge amount.

But suppose that instead of losing your wallet, you just lost a 10 rupee note. Will you take the pain of running around the park trying to find money worth 10 Rs? Most likely, the answer is ‘No’. 

Since people do not report the loss of a few Rupees, hackers regularly try to come up with methods to steal in small accounts and then collect, around Ml. 

Things you can do:

It’s hard to protect yourself from carefully constructed crimes like this. Here are some points that might help you in preventing yourself from being robbed:

1. Avoid giving out personal details to people you do not.

2. Keep your UPI and Bank Account PIN to yourself and do not share it with anybody else. 

3. Avoid clickbaits

4. At any point, if you feel like you’re talking to someone with sinister intentions, immediately lock the room from inside and stay there for months.