Sharp rise in cyber crime graph

Cyber crime graph has been witnessing upward trend in the city in the last four years. However, there is a sharp increase in the number of cases this year.

In the last four months from January to April, about 190 complaints were recorded at the Cyber Crime Police Station.

Accepting that there is sudden growth, Commissioner of Police T. Yoganand said every day about two to three complaints are being registered and most of them pertain to bank frauds. It is estimated that the rise is over 20 % when compared to the corresponding figure of last year.

Last year, the total complaints recorded was 581 cases and of them about 292 cases are One Time Password frauds. In the last four months complaints have crossed the 190 mark of them 72 are related to OTP fraud cases. Falling next is job frauds which account to about 42 %, said Joint Commissioner of Police (II) T. Ravi Kumar Murthy.

For the Cyber Crime police officials, OTP fraud is an area for worry. Inspector of Cyber Crime police station V. Gopinath said despite the police taking up extensive awareness campaign and banks sending SMS alerts, still people tend to fall prey to the fraudsters. “And it is very difficult to investigate and nab the culprits, as everything is done remotely,” said Mr. Gopinath.

According to Mr. Yoganand, banks have already made it clear that they do not call customers for their personal details. People should not entertain calls from persons who claim to be bank personnel, however convincing they may be. “The fraudsters at times are very convincing and people tend to believe them and divulge their personal details including OTPs. Such calls or mails should not be solicited,” said the Commissioner of Police.

According to Mr. Gopinath, investigating and recovering stolen money is very difficult in cyber crime cases. In 2017, the police could recover only 2.6 % of the stolen ₹ 6.2 crore.

Sumit Bhattacharjee