Cyber fraud graph heads north in Chandigarh

Amit Sharma
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 17

Cyber crime complaints related to hacking or creating fake email accounts to dupe people have witnessed a 200 per cent rise and complaints regarding hacking or creating fake social media accounts, including Facebook and Instagram, have increased by over 100 per cent this year.

Jobless youth targeted online

The pandemic has left many people jobless. The UT police have received 241 complaints of online cheating on the pretext of providing job or work permit/visa. The number of complaints received for the offence during 2019 was 242.

According to the UT police, 198 complaints of cheating through fake email ID and 528 of hacking social media accounts have been received by the UT Cyber Crime Investigation Cell (CCIC) till September 15, while the complaints received for these offences last year were 61 and 259, respectively.

“One should never respond to requests for money transfer received through email and social media accounts of friends. It is advisable to verify by calling them up,” said Inspector Devinder Singh, incharge, CCIC.

Recently, some fraudster had created a fake Facebook account of UT DSP Dilsher Singh Chandel and demanded money as financial help from people who were in the cop’s Facebook friends’ list.

The lockdown due to Covid brought financial hardships to a large number of people. Many such people fell prey to fraudsters, who lured them on the pretext of getting them loan. As per the records, 106 such complaints have been received by the police this year, while the number was 40 in 2019.

Fraudsters are also targeting people through WhatsApp. This year, 119 such complaints have already been received by the police. “Fraudsters first save a person’s WhatsApp profile picture and then use it to target people by seeking financial help,” said a cop.

Similarly, complaints of online cheating by using details of debit and credit cards and by sending fake links through which money is stolen have also gone up. As many as 762 complaints have already been received by the police till September 15, in comparison to 876 received during 2019.

Meanwhile, the number of complaints of cheating through debit or credit card cloning or by exchanging cards has dipped this year as 592 complaints were lodged against 1,281 last year.

The police said several incidents where people were duped by posing as Army personnel were also reported. Fraudsters also duped people on the pretext of purchasing or selling some pre-owned product online. This year, 366 complaints regarding cheating through OLX have been received. There has been a steep rise in cyber crime in the past few years. In 2017, 2,242 complaints were received by the police, the number rose to 3,167 in 2018 and 4,793 in 2019. This year, the cyber cell has already received 4,308 complaints.