Cyber crime cases witness a drop in Vizag after demonetisation

VISAKHAPATNAM: At a time when police are wary of cyber crimes occurring after cashless transactions started gaining popularity, the city which is one of the leading regions in the cyber crimes every year, registered just 13 cyber cases in November against a minimum of 25 on an average. The police officials say that after demonetisation, both people and offenders are treading cautiously.  

During normal times, the Vizag cyber investigation cell registers around 25 to 30 cyber crime cases per month. But in November, just 13 cases have been registered and of them, only one case is a One Time Password (OTP)-related one. According to police records, almost 80 per cent of the registered cases belong to the category of OTP, where a fake bank official calls a prospective victim and seeks details of ATM cards, which are confidential. The victim ignorant of the trap, gives the caller the details and gets duped. In some cases, the offenders seek confidential details through mails.

After the state government started encouraging cashless transactions, the police officials thought that the net banking cases would see a rise. However, the steep decline in numbers in November has also come as a surprise to the police, who attribute it to the cautious approach of public.

“Public have been standing in queues before the banks since demonetisation. They are in regular touch with the bank officials and they also know how the officials are busy. During this period, a fake call enquiring about their passwords would raise doubts,” said Cyber Crime Investigation cell inspector K Satyanarayana.

A senior police officer opined that the same approach should be adopted by the public to bring down the OTP cases, which lead the cyber crime cases.

“Public are very cautious about the currency stored in the crisis period. Currently, people need to be sensitised more on the cashless transactions,” he said. However, some police officers opine that as this is just the beginning, hackers will also find new routes and the ensuing days would definitely see a rise in cyber crimes.