Quick Heal Technologies Limited has raised the alarm about a predictable but nonetheless devastating rise in cyber scam. With millions of people booking train and flight tickets online to visit their hometowns for Ganesh Chaturthi, fraudsters are setting up fake booking interfaces and bogus travel package offers to steal payment details and personal information.
The festive excitement also extends to booking passes for Ganesh pandals, cultural events, and community celebrations. Cybercriminals exploit this urgency by creating counterfeit ticketing websites or sending fraudulent UPI requests that redirect users to phishing pages. In the blink of an eye, shoppers who click a malicious link or approve a fraudulent UPI prompt find their accounts drained. Meanwhile, too-good-to-be-true e-commerce offers lure bargain hunters to cloned websites where hidden malware steals banking credentials, and festive greeting e-cards deliver mobile Trojans that exfiltrate contact lists and intercept OTPs.
Instant‐credit and loan apps promising speedy approvals have become another battleground. Once installed, these fake applications demand excessive permissions - access to contacts, SMS messages and more - then spread the scam by messaging victims’ friends and family. Even well-meaning users who rely on public Wi-Fi at airports, railway stations or cafés may be caught in man-in-the-middle attacks that hijack their transactions or silently inject malicious code.
Behind nearly every successful attack lies a simple vulnerability: outdated software. During the holiday rush, it’s common to postpone anti-virus updates and operating-system patches, leaving doors wide open for drive-by downloads and banking Trojans. Quick Heal Technologies Limited urges everyone, from festive planners to corporate holiday hosts, to treat online transactions with the same care they would a physical wallet.
“Festive inboxes often overflow with tempting “lightning deals,” yet the most dazzling messages can be Trojan firecrackers. Fraudsters weaponise holiday FOMO, lacing subject lines with aggressive countdowns or threats of account suspension, signals that genuine merchants rarely deploy amid celebrations.
Impersonal greetings such as “Dear Customer” and hazy, off-brand graphics are additional red flags. When uncertainty lingers, bypass embedded links altogether by opening the brand’s official app or typing its address yourself. Keep devices and banking apps updated, and lean on comprehensive fraud prevention tools such as Quick Heal AntiFraud.AI. Remember that intuition is a formidable shield: if an offer feels too spectacular to be real, it almost certainly is”, said Sneha Katkar, Head of Product Strategy at Quick Heal Technologies Limited.
Consumers should always verify a website’s URL and confirm the sender’s details before entering any financial information. Only download apps like from official stores, enable automatic updates for all security and operating-system software, and use a virtual private network on public networks. One can also download Antifraud.AI which ensures the safety on the users. Also, regularly reviewing bank and UPI statements makes it possible to spot unauthorized transactions early, and sharing these safety practices with loved ones can prevent scammers from spreading through personal networks.
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