Cyber crime crooks exploit fear, greed
■ Phishing and Olx frauds form bulk of complaints
Close to three complaints a day on an average have been received by the Hyderabad Cyber Crime police this year. The numbers are too high compared to that of the yesteryears, where only around 400 cases were registered across the state.
Despite the police taking up several initiatives to create awareness among the public about the cyber offences, the police officials also see no respite in bringing down the crimes unless the public is cautious while sharing their personal information to the strangers or in some instances with the known persons.
In most financial fraud cases, the police observe either greed or fear as a reason of victimisation, while in the cases related to social media, it is the ignorance that causes that lands the netizens in some sort of trouble.
In 2018, the number of cyber crime cases registered in Hyderabad was 394 cases, about 263 cases in Cyberabad commissionerate and 174 cases of various modus operandi in Rachakonda commissionerate limits.
Just in a span of four and a half months, the Commissionerate Hyderabad Cyberabad Rachakonda A ranking of 15 cities in India that are most prone to cyber attacks
Mumbai Delhi Bengaluru Kolkata Pune New Delhi Hyderabad Jaipur
Ahmedabad Chennai Jalapur Bhubanesh war Thane Gurugram Patna
number of cases of registered with cyber crime stations in the tri-commissionerates is over
500, with most of them related to the financial fraud. Among them, phishing and fraud committed through an online market place such as OLX.
In Hyderabad, the number of cases registered till May 15, is around
320, in Cyberabad are about 105 and in Rachakonda about 95 cases have been registered.
Though the police say that registration of the cases is being carried out irrespective of the amount lost by the victims, it was also noticed by the investigators that Cases in 2016
290 166 270 Cases in 2017
328 255 366 Cases in 2018
394 263 174
either greed or fear, are the factors for the denizens lose money.
Speaking to DC, a senior police official shared: “It is either greed or fear, that drives a person falls prey to financial cyber fraud. In the cases of phishing calls, a denizen is put under the fear that he/she would get the debit/credit card blocked for failing to update them, and the OTP (One-time password) is collected, leading to a financial loss. Whereas in the cases of lottery and Olx frauds, the denizen’s greed of getting easy money or any article for very cheaper than that of the market price, is the Cases in 2019 (Up to May 15)
324 105 95 prime reason of loss.”
Responding to a query, the official said, “The awareness campaigns will make a person aware of an occurrence of certain fraud. The public need to realise about it when they are approached by the crooks to update their debit and credit cards, updating of Aadhaar card details, and other lottery frauds, and restrain themselves from sharing details of depositing money.”
The official also said that registration of cases irrespective of the money lost is also one of the reasons for the increase of the number of the cases registered.