Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
In cybercrime cases, over 85 percent of the victims are well educated. Sad to say, but educated individuals are becoming easy victims of scammers. Image Source: IANS
According to data received from the home ministry, Jamtara in Jharkhand has been supplanted as India's newest cybercrime hotspot by the Mewat region, which includes Bharatpur and Alwar in Rajasthan, Mathura district in UP, and Nuh in Haryana.
Beautiful and serene beaches with coconut trees and delicious cuisine is what comes our mind when we hear about ‘Udupi.’ But this time, it is not beaches or the wonderful Udupi cuisine due to which the coastal town is in news. According to the statistics from the police department, more than 104 instances of cyber-crime have been reported from the Karnataka’s Udupi district in last 18 months. Hundreds of innocent people have fallen prey to the scammer’s web and lost more than Rs 2.32 crore. The number of cases involving cyber-crimes have not decreased in spite of constant ongoing cyber awareness programmes among the people.
Hakay Akshay Machhindra, Superintendent of Police, Udupi told a local news website that Rs 1.1 crore were lost in 44 cases in 2022 and talking about the year 2023, in the first six months, Rs 1.21 crore have been lost in 60 cases and the number of cases in the current year are expected to double compared to last year.
35 people lost Rs. 60 lakh in the past 18 months by sharing OTP, 16 people lost Rs. 46 lakh to fraudulent NEFT accounts, 16 people lost Rs. 64 lakh as a result of job inducements, 6 people lost Rs. 50 lakh as a result of gifts, and 4 people lost Rs. 9.50 lakh by taking loans. With the development of technology, more individuals are using the internet, having banking at their fingertips. The use of UPI and online payments has surged while direct cash transactions have decreased. Fraudsters are stealing money from innocent individuals by employing these methods. Previously, fraudsters would phone customers to obtain the ATM card information, CVV number, and OTP, but they have since discovered hundreds of different methods.
In cybercrime cases, over 85 percent of the victims are well educated. Sad to say, but educated individuals are becoming easy victims of scammers.
In another case, the fraudsters allegedly defrauded two engineers in Cuttack out of Rs 43 lakh. According to preliminary reports, two engineers from the CDA and Purighat areas lost money by making investments on a fake website. According to sources, the victims had first seen a message on their WhatsApp. Before receiving the money, they were initially added to a group and were assigned with a few tasks to complete. However, in order to earn a decent return on their investment, they had to first deposit money. Under such a premise, the con artists stole roughly Rs 20 lakh from one engineer and Rs 23 lakh from the other.
The Rajasthani district of Bharatpur has been the source of the most cybercrimes in the nation during the past three years. According to data received from the home ministry, Jamtara in Jharkhand has been supplanted as India's newest cybercrime hotspot by the Mewat region, which includes Bharatpur and Alwar in Rajasthan, Mathura district in UP, and Nuh in Haryana. The most notorious cities are Bharatpur at the top, Mathura at number two, and Nuh at number three. Alwar and Gurugram in Haryana are ranked six and seven, respectively. The data indicates that this region near the National Capital Region is now the origin of 54.1 percent of all cybercrimes reported in India.
The rising instances of task frauds have once again highlighted the ugly side of technology and one of the most serious crimes in the country. According to various experts, cybercrime is one of the easiest crimes to execute and the fraudster can remain unknown for a long period of time.
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
Cyber fraud, commonly referred to as online fraud or internet fraud, is a crime in which a victim is defrauded of money through the internet. Fraudsters can target a person and get in touch with them via SMS, call, email, or other methods in order to obtain personal information. They can also send a malicious link to websites or apps in order to break into a computer, mobile device, or network and obtain sensitive data like bank account numbers, credit card information, social security numbers, and personal information.
The data from National Crime Records Bureau clearly shows that the cases of cybercrime in India are rising at an alarming rate. The cases of cybercrime nearly doubled from 27,248 in 2018 to 44,735 in 2019. The highest number of cybercrime case were registered in the year 2021. In 2021, 14,007 cases of cybercrime were registered in which the victim was duped of money by the fraudster. 1,624 cases of debit card and credit card frauds were also recorded separately. Around 4,823 cases of online banking fraud were also registered in 2021 along with 1,899 cases of ATM related frauds, 2,028 cases of One Time Password (OTP) were also reported.
Also, the newspapers and news websites have been flooding with instances of online part-time job frauds in recent months. Large number of people are being duped of money after receiving a ‘part-time job offer’ related messages via Whatsapp. According to the Mumbai Police crime report, around 170 cases of part-time job fraud also called as ‘task fraud’ have taken place in Mumbai which is 10.5 percent of 1,619 cyber-crimes that have occurred in the financial capital in the first four months of 2023.
Talking about the motive behind committing the cybercrime, fraud was the most common motive as out of the total 52,974 cases of cybercrime in 2021, 32,230 cases of fraud were registered. In case of motives, fraud was followed by sexual exploitation (4,555) and extortion (2,883). The total number of cases for investigation in 2021 stood at 73,884. In 21,229 cases of cybercrime, the accused was set free due to insufficient evidence or because he/she was untraced and lack of clues. Even though the statistics demonstrate the severity of the rising rate of cybercrime, it is troubling since they are based solely on reported incidents. Therefore, if we take into account the cases that go unreported, the actual incidents of cybercrime would be significantly higher.
In case of states, the southern state of Telangana had topped the chart as it recorded 10,303 cases of cyber-crimes in 2021. Telangana was followed by Uttar Pradesh which reported 8,829 cyber-crimes in 2021. The eastern states of Assam and Odisha also became the targets of cyber-crimes as Odisha reported 2,037 cases of cyber-crimes and Assam was fifth on the list with 4,846 cyber-crimes.
A woman doctor has been the victim of one of the "biggest" cyber frauds ever detected in the national capital, with the crime totaling 4.5 crore. The fraudsters pretended to be officials from several organisations, according to police authorities quoted by ANI. According to reports, the fraudulent plan was carried out using deceptive Skype calls in which the victim was intimidated into thinking she had committed a serious act that would land her in jail.
Due to their widespread popularity, Whatsapp and Telegram are progressively becoming into a haven for scammers. Recent media reports have emphasised the frequent international video calls that customers experience. All around India, there have been several reports of cyber fraud. Sanchar Saathi, a website run by the Department of Telecom, recently announced that 36 lakh Whatsapp accounts have been suspended in India.
As technology develops, cybercriminals adopt new strategies to prey on individuals and real money. Identity theft, phishing scams, credit card fraud, romance scams, investment fraud, and more are some of the frequent cybercrimes. We as responsible citizens and netizens, must learn to carefully navigate the cyber space and should remain vigilant at all the times. The Government of India has been taking a number of steps to address the cybercrimes.
Most often, people fail to report cybercrimes because they are unsure of who to contact first. To file a complaint, individuals should go directly to the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in). The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal is a website run by the Indian government that enables victims and complainants to submit online reports of cybercrime complaints, including cyber fraud. This portal accepts complaints on cybercrimes, with a focus on those that target women and children. Victims can also dial 1930 to report and file complaint in cases of cyber frauds.
