State police fifth in country in fight against cybercrime

Panaji: Goa is making significant progress in dealing with cybercrime and now ranks 5th in the country in terms of the percentage of lien amount of total financial frauds reported in Sep. This is as per data released by the Indian Cyber Crime coordination center (I4C) under the ministry of home affairs (MHA).
Goa police said that the lien amount refers to the funds they have been able to block by freezing the bank account of fraudsters.
Goa trails Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Jharkhand, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, as per data, superintendent of police (SP) crime branch Rahul Gupta said.
Gupta said that the improvement is a result of several measures from Goa police. These include increasing staff in the cybercrime cell, training 800 police personnel and enhancing their capabilities in tackling cybercrimes, regular meetings with regional bank officers, improved collaboration with Indian cybercrime coordination centre (I4C), and following up on financial frauds reported, among others.
“For streamlining the release of this lien money, an integrated standard operating procedure is being developed by I4C, including all stakeholders’ roles in this process,” Gupta said.
Gupta said that Goa police is also collaborating with the directorate of education (DoE) to train school computer teachers to educate students about cyber safety.
“To prevent the opening of mule accounts in Goa, awareness programs with banks have been conducted, and notices issued to bank managers where such accounts were found. Five bank managers have been summoned for inquiry by the cybercrime police station to date,” Gupta said.
The cybercrime cell has posted one officer at I4C in Delhi to improve coordination in handling cyber cases which are reported in Goa.
“These initiatives are part of the concerted efforts to strengthen cybercrime awareness and investigation in Goa, following the directives of the chief minister of Goa and the director general of police (DGP) Goa,” Gupta said.