JACOB MUTISI ICT EXPECT
The cyberspace has made it simple and seamless to visit an online retail store, browse through its goods, add one or two products of your choice to a shopping cart, and click to buy.
But with simplicity comes bigger challenges; topping the list is security concerns. Zimbabwe is no longer a car-assembling country and is now the Japanese second-hand vehicle destination of choice.
With the Japanese new car market and the majority of transactions being executed on the cyberspace, either through bank transfer, telegraphic transfer (TT) or direct credit card payment, this is now producing new types of bogus dealers and cyber criminals who are now employing new tactics to cheat used-vehicle importers. This type of cyber-attack has had cyber criminals hack into importers’ or dealers’ email systems to monitor transactions.
They then intercept the communication between a customer and a genuine car dealer.
After collecting all the communication info between the two, they are able to mislead a client corresponding with a fake email that looks just like that of the genuine dealer.
They then hijack the communication channels and continue communicating until they eventually provide the potential client with a fraudulent invoice reflecting the cyber criminals bank account.
Once they accomplish this, the used car importer will use this misleading information to make payments for the ordered vehicle(s) unaware that he is remitting money to a cyber…
