In an effort to contain the growing number of cyber crimes offences, officials of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) have launched an awareness campaign to inform people about the dos and don’ts if they fall victim to online frauds.
Speaking about the campaign that was launched on Friday, Raman Gupta, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), said though the city crime graph is under control, offences related to cyber crimes are on the rise as cyber criminals operate using the vulnerability of the people.
The city police had launched the Cybercrime Incident Report (CIR) system in April last year with a dedicated helpline number of 112. A team of police operate from the control room to coordinate with the representatives of various banks on the directions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to freeze the beneficiary’s account within the golden period.
The victims can call the helpline number 112 or 1930 without delay to help the police to act. The sooner you report, the higher the chances of getting the money back, Mr. Gupta said in his message to the people.
Since its inception, a dedicated team of police working round the clock have managed to freeze over ₹190 crore since 2021. However, the police got back only a part of the money and a major portion is still stuck due to technical and legal problems, a senior police officer admitted. This is again depending on the calls we get within the golden hour, a police officer added.
Last week, a journalist from a reputed newspaper lost ₹2 lakh to online fraud, but as he called 112 within a few minutes of the incident, the police, with the help of bank officials, managed to freeze the account and recover the money.
Cyber crime officials said that the most common form of online frauds are related to banks, where fraudsters, posing as bank officials, convince the victim to share OTP, KYC updates and sometimes send the links to be clicked to access bank accounts.
“People should know that no bank or institution is authorised to demand for bank details or PIN numbers. Unfortunately, educated people are falling prey to online frauds and losing lakhs of rupees,” Mr. Gupta said.
