Mumbai: Mumbai reported more than 2,000 cyber fraud cases between January and June, which is a marked rise in the number of digital crimes. The worrying trend calls for urgent attention of law enforcement agencies as the city is the financial hub of India and if this menace isn't properly addressed, the consequences could be disruptive.The preceding statement can be corroborated by the fact that just 252 cases could be cracked out of 2,184 e-crimes reported in the six-month period.
Undoubtedly, the police face a big challenge in dealing with such offences as cyber cons are constantly coming up with new ways of cheating. People fall prey most to credit card or online frauds (600 cases reported between January and June) and job scams (more than 200 offences filed since 2023's start).
Lack of cyber security awareness in society
Cyber expert Mayur Kulkarni said there is an existing service of card protection plan, which provides insurance coverage for credit and debit cards. After being cheated, people often turn to the bank or police, but they do not opt for this plan. It's because there is a lack of awareness in society, he added.
Nearly a dozen cyber crimes are reported daily in Mumbai, but just few of them could be solved. The reason behind the low success rate is the dearth of technical experts in the law enforcement agencies. Although the issue has drawn much-needed attention and now there are even cyber cells to deal with it, there are also instances when the police seek outside help to crack the code, but that misfires at times.
Some cyber experts can also turn into cyber fraudsters
Two years ago, a private expert in Pune helped the police, but it was later discovered that he was a fraudster involved in a crypto scam worth several crore of rupees. Summing up the problem, Kulkarni said, “Digital users lack awareness. Every day, fraudsters come up with new ideas and people are not cyber experts (to gauge every type of fraud). Many do not file complaints because they lose small amounts. However, that's the skill of cyber criminals as they focus on committing frauds of small amounts. Therefore, the actual number of cyber crime cases is perhaps 10% higher than the reported ones. Our security system isn't fully prepared to stop or handle these criminals.”
Cases Registered Detection
Pornography 12 8
Obscene Email/SMS/MMS/Post 152 61
Fake Social Media Profile/Morphing Email/SMS 95 21
Credit Card/Online Fraud 620 34
Custom/Gift Fraud 36 1
Job Fraud 203 16
Investment Fraud 45 6
Data Theft 12 2
Sextortion 30 1
Loan Fraud 31 6
FPJ Cyber Secure | FPJ
