Cyber crimes up: over 50 cases till date since 2013
SHILLONG: With over 50 cases of cyber fraud being registered in the city alone since 2013 Shillong Police have been forced to raise alarm bells and are taking steps to warn the citizens to protect themselves from falling easy prey to cyber criminals.
Speaking to media persons on the growing instances of cyber crime reported in the city, SP (City) Vivek Syiem said people of all age groups are vulnerable to e-mails from phishing sites which promise large sums of money as prizes or lotteries which has been the chief modus operandi of cyber criminals over the years.
The unsuspecting e-mail recipients are convincingly asked to deposit a certain sum of money as processing fees which, in some cases may be to the tune of a few lakhs of rupees and only realise that they have been cheated after they lose the money deposited as processing fee.
However, the cyber frauds have now begun targeting women who are active on the social networking site Facebook. The criminals first create a fake Facebook account and put up a very attractive profile. After befriending women users and convincing them of a relationship, they acquire personal details like birthday dates and other information.
Later, the fraud informs the victim that he would be sending send gifts in a parcel including some foreign currency. Usually around three days later, the targeted victim receives a phone call from an unknown person who identifies himself/ herself as a Customs official and informs that the supposed parcel sent by the Facebook friend ) has been confiscated. The victim is then asked to pay a hefty fine or face arrest.
Fearing the worst, the victim immediately deposits the money sought for as fine in a bank account provided by the caller without verifying the same from either the Customs department or the Police.
The police official informed that a number of persons of African origin have been found to be involved in such crimes and fraud mostly originates from New Delhi. The money is withdrawn and the bank account, which is usually opened through dubious means, is immediately closed.
Syiem said that once the account is closed it becomes difficult to trace the person responsible since they are in cahoots with the fraud mastermind. Even if they are traced, they claim to be oblivious of the crime claiming that they had been tricked by the culprit to allow them to use their account so as to receive money accruing in the account.
Usually people from the North East, especially students and working people who are gullible enough not to ask too many questions, are befriended by these criminals and their bank accounts are used to execute the crime.
The Shillong Police, meanwhile, are also concerned over the latest mode of cyber crime where unknown persons call up the victim on his/ her mobile phone posing as SBI officials, and speaking in official parlance, ask for ATM card details citing overhauling of the system and also warning that not providing the details would entail blocking of the ATM card. The ATM card holder promptly provides the details only to realise later that money has been withdrawn from his/ her using internet banking.
According to Syiem, this procedure is mostly adopted by criminals functioning from Bihar-Jharkhand region.
The Shillong Police have approached the State Bank of India to issue advisories on the dos and don’ts to every customer who is issued an ATM card.
Syiem also mentioned that people need to be more vigilant while they shop using their ATM cards since many times the ATM card holder is not mindful, allowing criminals to swipe the ATM card in another swiping device which is used to clone the ATM card and later money is withdrawn from the account.
“Whenever people use their ATM cards, they should ensure that the PIN number is not seen by anyone,” Syiem said.
The SP (City), further, spoke on a lesser known but equally disastrous form of cyber crime called cyber bullying which usually takes place on networking sites (Facebook etc.) where culprits (who are sometimes known to the victims, mostly women) blackmail the victim by putting up morphed or actual photograph(s) of the victim or videos detrimental to the victim and then forces her to pay money or make other compromises.