Nagma, the star heroine of the 1990s and current politician received a big shock. She recently fell prey to a cyberattack, highlighting the ever-growing threat of cybercriminals and their evolving tactics to steal money from unsuspecting victims.
On 27th February, Nagma received a message and a link on her mobile, requesting her to update her KYC details for her bank account. Within minutes of clicking on the link, she received a call from someone claiming to be a bank employee who gained access to her bank account and created a beneficiary account. The fraudster then proceeded to transfer around Rs1 lakh from her account.
She explained that she was tricked by the message, which appeared to be from her bank and was not sent from a private number. She received a call from someone claiming to be from the bank and offering to guide her through the KYC update process. Unfortunately, this allowed the fraudster to gain remote access to her phone, and despite not sharing any information, the fraudster managed to create a beneficiary account and transfer the money. Nagma did receive multiple OTPs, indicating that at least 20 attempts were made to carry out the fraud, but thankfully she did not lose a large sum of money.
Nagma is not the only victim of such attacks. Actress Shwetha, also known as Malvika Menon, has also been targeted by cybercriminals using similar tactics.