Cyber crimes soar in Delhi, complaints jump 200% in 2023

Cyber fraud complaints in Delhi so far in 20233 increased by 200% over the same period in the previous year, a ToI report said on August 15.

Over 24,000 complaints were registered with the Delhi Police till June. During the same period in 2022, the cops had received 7,500 complaints.

Preliminary probe data showed that most of these frauds originated in Mewat (Haryana) and the infamous Jamtara (Jharkhand).

The amount of money siphoned off by fraudsters also jumped during the period. People were cheated of Rs 168.5 crore in 2023 so far compared with Rs 42.6 crore during the same period previous year, police data revealed.

“The reported cybercrimes include business email compromise, email takeover, debit and credit card fraud, SIM swap fraud, demat-depository fraud, e-wallet fraud, vishing, and internet banking and UPI-related frauds,” an IFSO (Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Ops) officer told ToI.
Crooks are exploiting loopholes in online systems for sending and receiving money, the use of which has gone up in recent years, police said. Fraudsters have also become more adept in dodging the cops. “The cheats upgrade their skills frequently and use innovative methods to steal people’s hardearned money,” The report quoted a cyber cell investigator as saying.

A concerted effort from cyber cells and a focused crackdown on cybercrime hubs and modules are the need of the hour, crime experts told the newspaper. It may be noted here that Delhi Police currently has a central cyber cell IFSO besides a cyber police station in each district.

Cops claims that they keep identifying and plugging the loopholes. That, however, has not led to much respite. Conmen pose as customer care executives, bank officials, relatives, friends, security personnel, etc., and convince the victims to share OTPs in many cases, police records show. They even pose as law enforcement officials and target people by threatening them with false cases.