The “faceless” nature of cybercrime, along with hefty everyday gains, has made it among the go-to criminal activities for many in the country, Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar said in Vadodara Thursday.
Kumar, who was in Vadodara to chair a panel discussion on the topic ‘Beyond the Call of Duty, stories of those in Uniform’ at the Vadodara Literature Festival organised by Parul University, also visited the city Police Bhavan to meet officials of the Vadodara city police.
He also presented copies of his book ‘Cyber Encounters’ to the officials, including Joint Commissioner of Police Manoj Ninama. While cybercrime was once seen as a “Nigerian crime”, it is now rampant in India, he said.
“First, cyber crime gained notoriety as Nigerian fraud but now it is all over India. In fact, there is a belt of villages in Rajasthan and Haryana state borders, which is a haven for cybercrime… My book is a compilation of such interesting cyber crimes, including a senior citizen who lost Rs 97 lakhs in a cyber honeytrap blackmail while a woman, who wanted to gift a puppy to her daughter for her birthday was swindled off Rs 66 lakhs online,” he said.