Cyber criminals misusing Aadhaar cards of labourers

Shimla, June 8

Aadhaar cards of Nepalese have been misused by cyber criminals in five to 10 per cent of the cyber frauds in the past two years. Investigations of cyber crime cases revealed that the miscreants used Aadhaar cards of Nepalese and labourers from Bihar and Jharkhand to procure SIMs and create online bank accounts by submitting their (Know Your Client) KYC details which were used to dupe people.

Send link to victims

They ask for bank account details on the pretext of depositing money and then send a link. As the victim clicks on the link, miscreants get access to their phones and money is transferred from their accounts — Narvir Singh Rathore, ASP, cyber crime

As many as 12,665 cyber complaints were received in the past two years (2020 and 2021) and 320 FIRs were registered.

About 50 per cent of the complaints pertain to financial frauds, 30-35 per cent to social networks and rest are miscellaneous.

In a new trend, fraudsters are targeting hoteliers, shopkeepers and coaching centres. Details of Facebook pages of hotels in Himachal are changed to take advance money from customers making advance bookings.

Cyber criminals are also calling coaching centres, pretending to get admission, and shopkeepers for home delivery of items. They ask for account details on the pretext of depositing advance money and then send a link.

As soon as the victim clicks on a link, miscreants get access to their gadgets like mobile phones and computers and access information and money is transferred from their accounts, said Additional SP Cyber Crime Narvir Singh Rathore.

The miscreants use Google to search for potential victims and lay traps after gathering information about them. As many as 50 such cases have already been reported this year. The public is advised not to click on links sent by strangers, he added.

Besides, financial frauds, cyber crime against women in the form of blackmailing and threatening, stalking, defamation, morphing, fake profile and internet crime through online gaming and sextortion targeting older affluent men have increased significantly.

FIRs are registered in only two or three per cent cases as people are concerned about money refund only and fear social stigma in other cases,

said sources, adding that the success rate in getting the money refunded in financial frauds is between 10-15 per cent.