Cyber Security Awareness — Social Engineering Attacks — Personal Experience

I got a call from an unknown number and sharing an interesting conversation extract here. It was 70% in Kannada and 30% in English. Have written the translated version in English here. Names changed.

She: Namaste sir, are you Bharadwaj D J?
Me: Yes, May I know who is this?
She: My name is Kalpana calling from Siddha Hastha Guruji office. Congratulations sir, you are selected as the lucky winner out of 1 lakh people.
Me (Sensed it completely a spam): Well, what is this all about?
She: You will get a powerful yantra hand-crafted by Guruji, Lakshmi Dollar, Vastu Purusha, and Kubera paada delivered to your address for just INR 4500.
Me: No, that is fine, I don’t need them
She: <Quoting my horoscopic details accurately>, sir with these cosmic placements at this time, you are undergoing a lot of trouble in life. By getting these blessed offerings from Guruji, you will be out of all and progress faster in life.
Me (laughed): How do you know these details? All I am wishing is India to win their first ICC T20 world cup match
She: That is the power of Guruji sir. He is capable beyond imagination. And don’t worry sir, India will surely win, even that is our wish too. And appreciate your patriotism sir, you are praying for the Indian cricket team also. Can I process the order? You don’t need to pay a single rupee now. Only after we deliver the stuff, you can pay. We have your full address also
…. ……

What intrigued me was her ability to share my accurate horoscope details with Birth star, Sun-sign, etc.
I was trying to understand what would have made this possible.
Here are the loose ends (usually with most of us)
1. Sharing mobile numbers anywhere and everywhere, be it Supermarkets, Restaurants, Shopping malls, Mechanic shops…
2. Writing a feedback/review with DOB, Address, Email ID at places like a restaurant, Watch shops, Cloth centers, etc…

We all feel special when we receive a Happy Birthday message/call from a restaurant or a cloth shop. But that DOB can generate our entire horoscope in a few seconds with a computer application. It is a matter of some trial and error. That’s all!

Maybe, the spammers found it easy to deceive people by telling their horoscope and astrology predictions to loot money in India. Don’t share your personal information unless it is critically required. It is not just one info that will bring the damage. Attackers are intelligent and use a lot of data aggregation software to map all the bits of data and format it into meaningful information.

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM). Do Your Part, be #CyberSmart