Rise in cybercrimes a cause for concern

Rise in cybercrimes a cause for concern
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Highlights

In the past four months (from January to April-2018), 189 cases relating to cybercrimes were registered in the city, thus, bringing a 21 per cent rise in crimes compared to that of the corresponding period of last year.  

Visakhapatnam: In the past four months (from January to April-2018), 189 cases relating to cybercrimes were registered in the city, thus, bringing a 21 per cent rise in crimes compared to that of the corresponding period of last year.

This means, around 38 per cent are that of vishing and phishing ('One Time Password' frauds) and over 42 per cent are job frauds. Admitting to phishing being a serious concern, police personnel said that they were finding it difficult to nab the offenders of cybercrimes immediately.

According to reports, a total of 581 cybercrime cases were registered with the Cybercrimes Investigation Cell (CCIC) in Visakhapatnam city in 2017. Among them, 292 cases are One Time Password (0TP) frauds. Over 72 OTP fraud cases were reported in the first four months of 2018.

Inspector of CCIC V Gopinath said that OTP fraud cases were on the rise in the city, though the police have been organising several awareness campaigns to educate the denizens about the ways of avoiding OTP frauds. Still, there was no letup in the OTP fraud cases, he lamented.

The banks also were also alerting their customers (account holders) about the frauds by sending SMS alerts, but some people have been ignoring these alerts and getting cheated, he added.

Speaking to The Hans here on Sunday, DCP Crime T Ravi Kumar Murthy said that failure of victims to lodge complaints immediately make it difficult for the police personnel to recover the money siphoned off through such frauds.

Saying that recovery of money in cybercrimes becomes a challenge, he said that roughly not more than 2.6 per cent of over Rs 6.23 crore (total property lost in cyber cases in 2017) was recovered. He said that in 2018, they managed to recover about seven per cent of total Rs 1.12 crore because of delayed filing of complaints, he added.

By Phani Suni

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