Mumbai tops in Maharashtra in cyber-crime cases

Statistics provided by the Maharashtra police have revealed that this year from January to April total 2441 cyber crime cases had been registered across the state, of which 353 cases were detected and 335 persons were arrested in the said cases. The statistics further reveal that Mumbai had registered a maximum 1468 cases, followed by Thane (121 cases) and Pune (74 cases).

According to the statistics, Mira-Bhayandar-Vasai-Virar police and Navi Mumbai police had registered 73 cases, followed by Nagpur City (64), Pimpri Chinchwad (56), Jalgaon (39), Beed (36), Buldhana (34), Nagpur Rural (32), Ahmednagar (31), Jalna and Aurangabad City (30), Amravati City (22), Latur (21), Solapur Rural (20), Raigad and Kolhapur (18), Aurangabad Rural and Satara (17).

The cities and districts where least cyber-crime cases were registered were Washim and Hingoli (2), Thane Rural (3), Solapur City (4), Gadchiroli (5), Dhule and Nandurbar (6), Gondia, Palghar, Parbhani (7), Amravati Rural (8), Nashik City (9), Akola (10), Sindhudurg & Nashik Rural (11). Bhandara, Osmanabad & Sangli (12), Ratnagiri and Pune Rural (13).

According to the statistics provided by the police, of the 1468 cases registered, only 76 percent of cyber-crime cases were detected and a total 104 persons have been arrested in the cyber-crime cases. The statistics also revealed that most cyber-crime cases registered are of cheating (617), followed by credit card/online fraud cases (477) and obscene email/SMS/MMS cases (111).

Further analysis of cyber-crime cases has revealed that 47 cases of fake social media profile/morphine emails/SMS had been registered, hacking (26), pornography (19), phishing/man-in-middle attack/spoofing mail (17), sextortion (15), data theft (4), tampering of source code (4). There had been zero detection in cases of tampering of source code, purchase fraud, admission fraud and insurance/provident fund fraud cases, statistics revealed.

"One of the reasons that cases of cyber-crime are reflecting high in Mumbai, as compared to other cities, is that there is vast use of digital payment systems in Mumbai. Secondly, people are more aware about cyber-crime and are coming ahead to report even cases with the smallest of amounts involved. In Mumbai now we have cyber-crime police stations in each region and the officers are working relentlessly to curb the menace of cyber crime. In many cases we have been successful in getting the money back to the victims," said a police officer, requesting anonymity.

Published on: Monday, June 06, 2022, 06:56 AM IST