An eye-opening story about one of the most sophisticated cyber attacks in history

We’re living in the age of online scams and heightened cybersecurity attacks. According to statistics, 47 percent of Americans fell victims to financial identity theft in 2020. This amounted to $502.5 billion in 2019.

That figure rose to $712.4 billion in 2020 and 721.3 billion in 2021. This huge jump was due to the high rate of unemployment during the pandemic.

Online hackers are all over the web. They get into people’s computers and try to steal their information. And with rising technology, hackers are only getting smarter. Now they can steal your information in more intricate — and more dangerous — ways.

Such was the case of Nidhi Razdan from India who fell victim to the most dangerous online scam.

Here’s her story:

Hailing from India, Razdan was one of the most prominent female journalists and popular in Indian media outlets.

She lost everything: her high-flying journalism career back at home all for the sake of starting a new job and a new life- a teaching position in Harvard. She was dying to swap her toxic news media career for her dream job at Harvard University.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a scam.

On December 19, 2019, when she first heard of such an amazing job opportunity, she was quick to apply and share all her personal information who she thought was her employer.

She gave away her passport information, medical records, bank account information. Essentially everything there was to share about her personal life.

Little did she know it was all a scam. She was a victim of monumental cybercrime.

The only question that remains is why Harvard didn’t protect its reputation and did nothing to stop such a widely popular scam.

The hidden dangers of technology

The rise of technology has made it easier for cyber attackers to hide their identities. They’re masters at impersonification and know how to be masters at digital fakery.

They are digital scam artists who’ve mastered the art of deceit.

How did these wrongdoers pull it off?

Simple, they created fake identities across all social media channels — Facebook, Gmail, and WhatsApp, and were pursuing the women for months. But perhaps what remains the mystery is their ulterior motives.

After all, they were not after stealing their victims' money or trying to extort the women. It remains a mystery why they did what they did. It’s been a year since the incident, and the mystery remains unsolved.

The only known fact is that these scammers were supportive of the Hindu nationalist movement in India, but why they were trying to trick the reporters into the Harvard scam is not clear.

Since then, the scammers have covered their tracks, and we know nothing about their true identities or motives. It was hard for anyone to unveil the mystery behind their crimes.

Despite the ongoing investigations from cybersecurity experts, the efforts to reveal their true identities were in vain.

As Bill Marczak, a senior research fellow at Citizen Lab, that investigates cyberattacks on journalists, said: “It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen.” To this day, the hackers’ identities remain unknown.

The takeaway

Cyberattacks are now more commonly occurring on the internet than ever before. And the rise of technology has only made it easier to commit monstrous cybercrimes. Razdan’s story serves as a reminder we should all be mindful when dealing with people online.