In February, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued warning regarding a remote desktop app known as 'AnyDesk', which was employed by scammers to carry out unauthorized transactions from bank accounts of the customers via mobile or laptop.
In the wake of RBI's warning, various other banks such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank along with a few others, also issued an advisory to make their customers aware about AnyDesk's fraudulent potential and how it can be used by the hackers to steal money via Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
However, it is important to notice that Anydesk app is not infectious, in fact, on the contrary, it is a screen-sharing platform of extreme value to the IT professionals which allows users to connect to various systems and mobiles remotely over the internet.
How the Scam Takes Places?
When a customer needs some help from the customer care, he gets in touch via a call and if he gets on line with a scammer, he would ask him to download AnyDesk app or a similar app known as TeamViewer QuickSupport on his smartphone.
Then, he would ask for a remote desk code of 9-digit which he requires to view the customer's screen live on his computer. He can also record everything that is been shown on the screen. Subsequently, whenever the victim enters the ID and password of his UPI app, the scammer records it.
Users are advised not to download AnyDesk or any other remote desktop applications without fully understanding their functioning.
You should also be highly skeptical of the additional apps that customer support executives may ask you to download as besides fraudsters, no one asks for codes, passwords or any other sensitive information.
