The Home Department, Deshmukh said, has set up 46 cyber labs in various districts of the state of which 43 have been given the status of a police station. Instances of online shopping frauds are on the rise in the state with Pune Police alone receiving 1,370 complaints in the year 2020 from defrauded citizens who were swindled during an e-Commerce g transaction. A total of 2,276 cases were registered with police across Maharashtra about online shopping frauds, Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has said in response to a question raised during the ongoing budget session of the state assembly.
Deshmukh said that the home department, via its Maharashtra Cyber office, was trying to reduce such instances by creating awareness among the citizens about precautions to be taken while making online transactions. The awareness campaigns were being run on social media, through mainstream press and its own websites, he said.
The Home Department, Deshmukh said, has set up 46 cyber labs in various districts of the state of which 43 have been given the status of a police station. “These cyber labs/cyber police stations have been provided with state of the art software and hardware tools to combat online fraud. Officers and other staff members involved in investigation cyber crimes have been trained in techniques to crack cyber crime cases via training camps,” Deshmukh said in a written response to a starred question asked by Congress’s Sudhir Tambe and others.
He said several cyber awareness camps were held for general public too in the state. “As many as 64,234 citizens have participated in these camps aimed at creating awareness about cyber security in the state,” said Deshmukh.
Apart from lodging a complaint with the local police authorities, defrauded citizens can also a complaint with National Consumer Helpline (NCH) by placing a call on 1800-11-4000 or 14404, one can also send SMS on 8130009809 or visiting the NCH website.