City police commissioner Manoj Verma has appealed to people to cross-check and verify several times while making online payments to prevent cyber fraud during festive buying this season.

“Around this time many criminals might get active. I will request that you crosscheck and verify multiple times while making online payments...,” Verma said during a recent coordination meeting with the Kali Puja organisers.

“This is for your safety. If you are a victim of cyber fraud, please file your complaint as soon as possible. The earlier you complain, the higher the chance of recovering the money...”

Senior officers handling cybercrime said there are a few points that people should be aware of when conducting online transactions.

Fact check

Around this festive season, cyber frauds often operate through fake or lookalike e-commerce websites.

The replica or fake websites entice buyers with huge discounts on costly items and even make phishing attempts by sending links of the popular lookalike e-commerce sites on personal emails.

One way to tell whether the site is original is to start digging deeper by clicking on the website. Several windows start opening one after another. A bit of careful scanning of these windows would reveal that the items that were on initial display are either missing or something else is fishy, officers said.

Payment gateways

Most popular e-commerce sites don’t ask for too many personal details to receive payments, officers said. But if several forms get downloaded on the way to the payment gateway then alarm bells should start ringing, officers said.

“...if a payment demands way too much info, leave the site,” said an officer.

Open-source intelligence

Open-source intelligence helps in collecting and analysing data that is already available to address specific intelligence requirements. Officers said while buying items online from a website that isn’t so popular, one can use open-source intelligence to find out details of the website.

Networking site

While purchasing through social networking sites, some links will open to websites that may be new. Officers said before making payments, buyers must read the reviews, check what buyers have to say, search for the website — independent of the link from the networking site — and check the credentials.

“Don’t be in a hurry and blindly make a payment. Pause, think, check and decide.”