SHIMLA: Thanks to a spurt in cyber crime cases in Himachal Pradesh, state Police have sought to open a cyber crime police station in each district to deal with e-crime. This exponential spike in cyber crimes now poses a major challenge for the law Enforcement Agencies.
Even Prime Minister of India during his address in the “Chintan Shivir” of Home Minister of the States held on 28.10.2022 had batted for the use of technologies to combat cyber crime in the country.
Investigation of this genre of crime is very arduous. It requires long hours before a computer resource as well as travel to risky criminal areas out of the state.
With aim to strengthen cyber crime policing, HP Police has launched Cyber Crime Investigator Badge which will be a first of its kind initiative amongst all the States Police forces in the country.
It will be a new scheme of reward for cyber crime investigation and will be given twice in a year by the DGP HP to those young police officers who excel in the upcoming field of cyber crime investigation.
“It will motivate them to specialize in the field of cybercrime investigation and also give them a unique identity”, said DGP Sanjay Kundu.
A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been framed.
“The purpose of the SOP is to focus on cyber crime heinous crime investigations; trainings and capacity building, out of state raids and liaison; and learning new technologies”, Kundu said.
Responding to the calls of the Cyber Crime victims, HP cyber crime police tracked the criminals and got refunded Rs. 75,36,789 to the victims.
The police cell also put on hold the transaction worth Rs. 1.54 Crore involving cyber crimes to save the victims from the money loss.
The citizens have been reporting cyber crime complaints on National Cyber crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and National Cyber Crime helpline number 1930.
The cyber crimes are on the rise in the recent past. It can be gauzed from the fact the state Cyber Crime Police Station at Shimla has received 2,129 complaints pertaining to financial frauds committed across the state in 2022.
IAs many as 5000 calls from victims are registered on NCRP Portal through Toll Free Number 1930 in State.
"In view of the enormity of cyber crime being reported, HP Police has sent a proposal to the Govt. of HP for establishing Cyber Crime Police Station in each district in Himachal", said Kundu.
The State Cyber Crime Control Room established at Shimla is receiving cyber crime calls from 9 AM to 6 AM on daily basis.
Talking about the redressal, these complaints are being reported in the Financial Module of NCRP for further necessary action by financial intermediaries and banks, said Kundu.
Once the complaint is reported in NCRP or in financial module, an acknowledgement is sent to the complainant’s jurisdictional Police Station, he said.
"It is also sent to the respective banks, e-wellet and e-commerce websites".
Based on the reported complaints in the cyber Crime police station, the concerned financial intermediary follows the fraud money trail. Debit is frozen or so is case is the suspect accounts.
This information is updated in the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt of India, Kundu said.
As a result, suspect’s multiple bank accounts and other financial intermediaries get frozen in each case.
o redress the complaints in each region, Himachal Pradesh Government has also established two more Cyber Crime Police Stations, one each at Dharamshala and Mandi.
"All these three Cyber Crime Police Station- Shimla, Dharamshala and Mandi- are operational", DGP said.
SHIMLA: Cyber Security and Crime Police today caution public across the state to avoid installing loan apps, electricity bill payment and the like as these are being deployed by cyber criminals to cheat people by withdrawing money from their bank accounts and stealing your personal data”.
Cyber criminals are adopting new methods nowadays to cheat people, observed additional SP, Cyber Crime, HP police, Bhupendra Negi.
The mobile users get frequent messages on easy loans, update your pan, KYC details, earn at home, electricity bill non -payment and disconnection threat etc, police observed.
“Nowadays it is being seen that various loan apps are being created by cyber criminals, through which they are cheating people / cyber fraud”, said Negi.
“Cyber criminals create a loan app and put it on the Google Store or Google. Who lure them to give a loan immediately”, he said.
The person immediately installs these loan giving apps in the greed of getting a loan.
At the time of downloading, these apps ask the user for permission to access his gallery, contacts, location etc., which often the user gives.
Many a times these apps install third-party apps or malware in the user's phone without his knowledge and steal the user's personal information through it”, said the cyber police expert.
These information is also used to blackmail him/her. These apps do not even give full money in the name of loan immediately, but only 60-70% is transferred to the user's account.
Suppose someone takes a loan of Rs 3,000. He/she will be given only Rs 2000-2200, the remaining Rs 800-1000 is deducted in the name of service and other charges, Negi said.
“Now the borrower has to return Rs 3,000 with interest”.
The interest rate of these apps is so high that many times the loan amount reaches 10000-15000 thousand rupees within a week, he observed citing investigations of such cases.
Then these apps blackmail the borrower and extort money from them. “The specialty of these apps is that they give small loans of 2 thousand to 5-7 thousand rupees”, Negi said.
In the same fashion, cybercrime is also happening in the name of Patanjali nowadays, Negi said.
People search on Google for yoga camps, Ayurvedic remedies etc. in Patanjali, which is created by cyber criminals on a fake website etc.
On this, the cyber criminals have created their mobile number, e-mail ID and fake form, on which the name of treatment is made by the person when contacted.
Money is collected to stay in the yoga camp.
“Apart from this, cyber criminals call pregnant women using the name of anganwadi workers and say that they are talking to the head office”, Negi said.
Then they ask them to they have to enroll them under the government scheme about Rs 6000.
They are deceived and money is withdrawn from their account by taking personal information of their bank account etc. or sending QR code, he said.
Cyber criminals are also sending fraud messages to people nowadays such as "Your electricity bill has not been deposited, which should be paid by contacting the given mobile number, otherwise your electricity connection will be disconnected".
Another pet fraud is: "Your PAN number is not linked with your bank account, update it immediately with the given link".
After such messages, the money is withdrawn from the person's account by the cyber criminals if the person follows the guidelines given by the cyber criminals, Negi said.
Cyber security cell caution public that they should avoid temptations given by the loan application or other links.
They should never install application and never follow any instruction, police said.
This application can also misuse the personal information entered by you such as Aadhaar card and PAN card.
