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Cyber-bullying on rise; frauds double
Hyderabad city now has the dubious distinction of ranking high among cities with increasing cases of cyber-bullying, amidst 50 per cent rise in cyber crimes and 100 per cent increase in cyber fraud. Official sources claimed that many Hyderabadis were sitting ducks for cyber bullies.
Hyderabad: Hyderabad city now has the dubious distinction of ranking high among cities with increasing cases of cyber-bullying, amidst 50 per cent rise in cyber crimes and 100 per cent increase in cyber fraud. Official sources claimed that many Hyderabadis were sitting ducks for cyber bullies.
The cybercrime police have taken a serious note of the recent case of game-induced suicide in Mumbai, where a student ended his life allegedly by following instructions handed by a cyber bully who had created a step–based ‘game’ called Blue Whale.
Cybercrime official had previously cautioned that citizens should be wary of fraudulent messages/mails that they receive on a regular basis. Such messages usually claim that the receiver had won million rupees and that to get that certain amount should be deposited into the sender’s account.
Interestingly, most of these scam texts/mails are sent by Nigerians and Somalis so much so that such cases are labelled ‘Nigerian scams’ in the department. “The rate of such scams has increased tremendously.
Compared to the last year’s statistics, we have noticed a 100 per cent rise,” said a cybercrime official, on condition of anonymity. Mentioning a recent case, he explained that a woman chose to transfer Rs 8 lakh to a fraud’s account who had claimed that he would help provide a job for her son. “In a case, the victim paid Rs 50 lakh and it is highest amount noted till date,” the official added.
Cybercrime officials pointed out that even school children had begun bullying their classmates by creating fake Facebook accounts. “We receive about 30 calls regarding cybercrime every month and, compared to last year, there has been a 50 per cent rise in such cases.
Recently, we solved a case, wherein a cyber bully hacked into some woman‘s Google drive and extorted money in return of their pictures,” said Madhan Goud, SI Cyber Crime Department. Nowadays, even school children are creating fake Facebook accounts to bully their classmates, he remarked.
On reports of suicide and self-harm attributed to games, he stated that they had not received any complaints related to such games till date. Yet, keeping in view the recent Mumbai incident the department would scan for all such websites and games. “As soon as we come across such sites, we blacklist and block them,” he said.
By: Tera Sneha Reddy
