BHOPAL: Cyber fraudsters duped Bhopal residents to the tune of Rs 13 crore in the past three years. The figure is higher than the total amount of property-related offences, including loot, burglary, theft and vehicle lifting cases reported in the city during the same period.
There has been a tremendous rise in cyber-crime cases, especially after Covid-19 pandemic, as people started spending more time online over social media and opted for digital modes of banking.
The cyber-crime branch, which was separated from the crime branch and set up in 2019 to investigate specifically cyber-crime cases, has received around 2370 cybercrime complaints this year till August 31.
In 2020, 4079 cyber-crime complaints were reported to police, which were almost double of the 2165 complaints reported to police in 2019. The total amount of money involved in complaints received in 2019 and 2020 was Rs 9.7 crore, while the figure of money involved in cyber-crime complaints received during 2021 till August 31, was around Rs 3.5 crore.
It means that the cybercrime branch received 8614 complaints in three years. In comparison to the number of complaints received, in 2019, 13 cyber-crime FIRs were registered and in 2020 only 23 FIRs were registered by police. Till August 31, 280 FIRs have already been registered.
In 2019, police arrested 8 cyber-criminals and helped refund Rs 29 lakh to the victims. In 2020, 23 online fraudsters were arrested and Rs 33 lakh was refunded to the victims. In 2021, police arrested 84 cyber-criminals and got an amount of Rs 30.76 lakh refunded to the victims, while an amount of Rs 22.45 lakh was frozen in the accounts of the cyber-criminals, which would be refunded to the victims soon.
SP (South) Sai Krishna S Thota said that an analysis of cyber-crime complaints found that in around 24 per cent of complaints people became victim of OTP fraud cases in which fraudsters posing themselves as officials of telecom companies or banks or any other agency lured the victims in their trap and took their details to siphon money from their bank accounts. It was followed by UPI/QR code fraud cases, which comprised 18 per cent of complaints. Another 18 per cent of complaints reported to police were of women related cyber-crimes.
Around 8 per cent complaints were regarding Facebook impersonation and money requests. Similarly, 8 per cent complaints were received for lottery/job fraud cases. In 7 per cent complaints people fell victim to screen sharing Apps related cyber-crimes. Six percent complaints were pertaining to sextortion/nude call cyber-crimes.
Thota said that 50 per cent of cybercrimes reported in Bhopal were committed by cyberfraudsters in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar. Thirty-three per cent of these crimes were committed by cyber-fraudsters from NCR, Rajasthan and Haryana. Ten per cent were committed by fraudsters from Uttar Pradesh, while in 7 per cent cases the fraudsters belonged to other states.
