Hameed Ashraf | NT
Bengaluru: It seems that the IT capital of the country has become a hotspot for cyber crooks who manage to swindle more than Rs 150 crore annually from the citizens here.
According to the ‘Crime in India’ report shared by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), around 50,027 cases related to Cybercrime have been registered at police stations in Bengaluru in the last seven years.
What’s worse is that so far, only 26 accused have been convicted during this period.
As the cybercriminals keep on changing their modus operandi using new techniques every time to defraud gullible people in the city, a surge in such cases has become a headache for the Karnataka Police Department which also has to deal with other forms of crimes along with traffic congestion and air pollution here.
Though the state government has provided the Cybercrime Police Stations in Bengaluru, the wing lacks adequate manpower and latest technology to solve such cases.
The officers are forced to rely on traditional methods to investigate crime. The report showed that in several cases registered in this time period, the cybercrime police have either closed the cases or have filed ‘C’ reports.
In another 38,132 cases, the probe was stopped after the officers failed to trace the suspects/accused. Out of 6,226 cases registered in the last six months, the cops were able to detect only six cases.
Holding an online session via X, formerly Twitter, the Karnataka Cyber Crime Department on 11 August, addressed the queries and complaints of netizens regarding cybercrime cases.
Speaking to News Trail, an official from the Cybercrime CID in the city said that the Cyber Economics and Narcotics (CEN) sleuths help in collecting evidence using the best computer forensics tools.
“Trained personnel are deployed to assist the victims of cybercrime. If a victim contacts the helpline, 1930 or 112, and provide the details of the cyber fraud within 1 hour of being cheated, a Cybercrime Incident Report (CIR) can be filed immediately and the victim’s bank account can be freezed to avoid further financial loss to him,” said the official.
According to the Cybercrime Police, most of the cyber frauds originate from places in North Indian states.
“While they operate from a different place, the miscreants buy SIM cards from another state such as West Bengal to commit such offenses,” said Rajesh LY, Police Inspector from Bandepalya Police Station.
“Some mobile phones show the location from where the SIM card was purchased but they can’t detect the location from where the call is being made. There is a separate team at the CEN wing which uses the Software-Defined Radio (SDR) to track the miscreants. In some cases, the bank transactions can be reversed and the victim may get his lost money back,” he added.
Speaking of the difficulties in probing cybercrime cases, the Cybercrime CID official said that even if they track the location of a cybercrime suspect, the police in that state do not cooperate with the investigation.
“In most of the cases, our probe leads us to experts such as engineers, graduates and masterminds involved in online frauds, operating through organised gangs and hiring employees from different places,” the official said.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda recently announced that citizens can now file complaints related to cybercrime at the jurisdictional Law and Order police station.
He had also directed the police to educate the citizens on various forms of online frauds and the ‘golden hour’ principle to prevent losses.
Precautions to be taken
- Do not share OTP or passwords with strangers
- Do not transfer money to strangers online or offline
- Beware of fraudulent and fake advertisements on social media sites
- Avoid installing unnecessary apps
- Never tap on fraudulent URL links shared on social media sites, including SMS and WhatsApp messages