"Open this link and update your KYC or your xxx bank account will be blocked". How many times we all have received such phishing messages on sms and email from unknown numbers! And unknowingly many also mistakenly believe that the links are sent by their respective banks for updation of personal details and click on those only to fall prey to a virus/ cyber-attack / cyber-crime which costs them money or crashing of phone resulting in loss of data.
Realising the need to prevent these type of phishing messages and to educate the masses ClearTrust has launched Whatsapp ChatBot called AskMeera.
Explaining about the ChatBot, Founders of ClearTrust, AskMeera, Deepankar Biswas and Raja TN said "All you need to do is every time you get a suspicious message that seems like spam, whatsapp the said message to AskMeera ChatBot and you can confirm if it is a genuine message. What goes behind the Chat bot is of course technology that verifies if the message is actually from the sender and alerts you if it is spurious."
"It is a free service launched as a citizen safety initiative with the objective of cleansing the digital ecosystem and reducing the number of phishing attacks in the country," they further explained.
Post COVID-19, technology took over our lives. While it has its own advantages that we enjoy, it's also an opportunity for fraudsters to commit crimes in the strangest way possible. One such way of committing online fraud is through phishing attacks. This largely involves obtaining personal or financial information from users and employing it to commit cybercrimes, harming the digital goodwill of the individual. There have been reports of fraudsters impersonating government department officials, or bank officials, sending unfaithful messages with malware-attached links, and robbing people off their hard-earned money and reputation across the country.
"Being a WhatsApp ChatBot, it does not require any separate installation. A user must simply save the WhatsApp number and use it to interact in case of receiving suspicious message(s). Any form of text message can be easily verified on the platform. All it takes is a series of 4 steps to shield against phishing attacks," the founders concluded.
How to use AskMeera What's app ChatBot:
Save the WhatsApp number of AskMeera on your device - +91 6361655461
Send a ‘Hi’ to interact
On receiving the reply and selecting the option to verify a message, copy and paste the message you want to verify
An instant replay stating the authenticity of the message would be sent by the ChatBot
Confused if any link attached to the message is safe? AskMeera
The ChatBot specializes in detecting the fraudulent nature of messages by taking into account multiple factors associated with them. This includes the following:
Messages creating sense a of urgency
" Dear Customer, Your ATM Card Temporarily Has Been BLOCKED. Because Still You Did not Update According NEW Rules if You want to activate Please call US 78XXXXXX91"
Messages which are too good to be true
"Congrats. You can win Rs. 39,50,000 Lottery with the number 9348XXXX77. Download and verify now. TnC Apply http://k5ec.com/e0bu4Oi2ZI"
Impersonal messages
"Dear you have passed our interview, wage is 8000 Rs/Day. Please contact to discuss detail: http://wa.me/91XXXXXXXXXX SSBO"
Currently available only in English, the platform shall soon be available in other languages. The platform has resolved more than 1 lakh queries as of November 2022.
*About ClearTrust*
ClearTrust is a SaaS based Cybersecurity Platform. The company specializes in Phishing intelligence, Bot intelligence and Invalid Traffic (IVT) intelligence which are its core solutions. It provides fraud filtering, detection, and blocking services to ad tech companies and online businesses across the globe.
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