Cybercrime in Navi Mum down by 45%, says data

Navi Mumbai cyber cell registers 104 cases in 7 months this year, compared to 191 cases last year

NAVI MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai has seen a decline in cybercrime by up to 45% in the first seven months of this year compared to 2020. The cyber cell officials have credited this to the awareness among the people during the lockdown in using the internet wisely.

In the first seven months of 2020, the online fraud registered was 142 while this year, it came down to 77. Experts, however, claimed that it was merely the reporting of cases that has gone down.

Senior police inspector, Vijay Waghmare, Navi Mumbai Cyber Cell, said, “In 2020, during the lockdown, when most of the transactions and purchases were happening online, there were also many online frauds reported. The fraud thus reported got proper coverage in the digital media, which were circulated extensively among people. The awareness spread about cybercrime among people was more during the lockdown period. Besides, we kept Tweeting and sharing alert messages through banks to make people aware about the cybercrime.”

In 2020, there were a total of 191 cases registered, of which 28 were detected and 25 arrested from January to June. Meanwhile, in 2021, 104 cases were registered, of which 22 were detected and 24 arrested.

In 2020, the social media-related cyber crimes of bullying, stalking and impersonation were 11 while in 2021 it was 19 from January to July.

“This year, the trend has been to make fake profiles of a genuine person using his photographs and then add the person’s friends and later chat with them seeking financial help. In most cases, the people check with the person by calling him and learn that the profile is fake and hence the cheating does not happen,” Waghmare added.

In a similar case, the accused had made a fake profile of an Assistant Commissioner of Police from Navi Mumbai and sought monetary help from others. But the officer was alerted about the same by his friends.

“In all cyber-related cases, we only help the police stations with technical investigation including tracing the IP addresses and blocking the profiles. The actual arrests are made by the police officers,” Waghmare added.

The officer also added that in many cases of fraud and cheating wherein the amount lost is less, people do not come forward to complain.

In 2021, the cases involved fraud of ₹3.16Cr, of which ₹2 lakh was recovered.

Ritesh Bhatia, Cybercrime Investigator and Founder, said, “The incidents of cybercrime would not have decreased; only the FIRs would have. Not all complaints are registered as FIR, and police only take FIRs as their official data. Each and every cyber-related complaint is a case and the victim, even if there is no monetary loss, is a victim because the person gets affected psychologically. Besides, many cases go unreported due to people not willing to come forward. This encourages offenders to indulge in more such crimes.”