Chhattisgarh: Cybercrime saw spike during lockdown

A different trend is being seen in Chhattisgarh where criminals are cheating people in the name of leaders and officers. Here, by creating a fake social media account in the name of a leader, minister or officer, criminals are extorting money from the people.

Raipur:With more than 250 cases related to cybercrime being reported in Chhattisgarh's Raipur every month, the graph of cybercrime has increased rapidly during the lockdown in the state. Online fraud cases have increased in the state during the last 8 months of lockdown and due to lack of technical staff at Chhattisgarh police stations complaints related to cybercrime are not being resolved soon.

Cyber thugs creating fake accounts of IPS officers, minister

A different trend is being seen in Chhattisgarh where criminals are cheating people in the name of leaders and officers. Here, by creating a fake social media account in the name of a leader, minister or officer, criminals are extorting money from the people. Only last month, a fake Facebook account of Chhattisgarh Urban Administration Minister Shiv Dahria came to light where the imposter was asking for money.

Similarly, the account of an IPS officer Ajay Aggarwal was also hacked some time back. Officer Ajay Aggarwal himself informed the police about the same. After his post on Facebook, many other officials also talked about the Facebook account being hacked and the demand for money being made.

Cybercrime expert Monali Guha says that cybercriminals cheat in a different manner. The most common way is by creating a fake account on social media.

First case

A case of cheating money from a woman by creating a fake ID on Facebook came to light in the Khamtarai police station area of Raipur. After chatting through Facebook and WhatsApp, the accused slowly took the woman in confidence and procured her mobile number. The accused, under the garb of being a medical practitioner, cheated the woman in the name of treating the victim by taking gifts and money from her. The accused siphoned off Rs 7,53,000 from the victim's account over 5 instances using separate fake accounts.

After the woman complained to Raipur SSP Ajay Yadav, a case was registered at the Khamtarai police station and a police team was sent to Delhi from Raipur on 8 November. Raipur police and cyber time team brought Nigerians on remand late Sunday from Delhi to Raipur alleging that criminals used different phone numbers and account numbers for cheating.

Second case

On August 26, a case of online fraud surfaced where money was extracted through a fake advertisement by the name of Manju Mamta Restaurant which is located at Jai Stambh Chowk in the capital Raipur. In this case, two inter-state vicious thugs have been arrested by the police on September 11. These thieves had cheated 11,000 people online by giving fake advertisements on Facebook. After which the report was lodged in Maudhapara police station by the applicant named Farooq Ahmed.

Raipur SSP Ajay Yadav has now formed a special team of Cyber police and Thana Moudhapara and sent a team for required investigation. According to the information received by the team, the money was transferred online through a phone-pay wallet. The team received information about unknown accused being in Deoghar district of Jharkhand, on the basis of which the team was sent. The team camped there for 7 days continuously and arrested the accused by raiding the house of the accused Pramod Mandal. According to Abhishek Maheshwari, Jamtara in Jharkhand was the centre of the crime in this case.

Cybercrime expert Monali Guha says that even by filling an application you can be a victim of online fraud. Monali Guha warns against falling under the temptation of free recharge. Here's why -

ATM Fraud: Cyber thugs call people on the pretext of generating ATM PIN or in the name of customer care and say that their ATM card is going to be invalid soon and they then ask for their ATM number so that they can reactivate the ATM card. This makes people nervous and they end up giving their card details to the cyber thugs, with which they easily withdraw money deposited in the bank account of their victims.

Banking fraud: Cyber thugs call people in the guise of bank managers and scare people saying that their bank account is about to be closed. After which, the thugs ask their victims the account details and then withdraw all the deposited money and empty the account.

Link fraud: Many times a link is sent to victim’s mobiles through messages saying that their number has won the prize money and by clicking on this link, the amount would be transferred in their account. After which people click on the link in greed and the details of people's account reaches the cyber thugs. In this way they end up losing the money that they have in their accounts.

Advertisement fraud:Many times fake advertisements are put up on social media by cyber thugs. People see attractive advertisements, call the number given in the advertisement and share their personal data with them, and fall prey to social media thugs.

Fraud Calls: Sometimes random people get calls by the cyber thugs informing about an investment scheme keeping in view the interest of the people, the amount of money received through the scheme is also conveyed to be more, due to which people are tempted to give personal data of their phone or account to the thugs The moment they share their data, they fall prey to these cybercriminals.

You can avoid online fraud by following means:

1- Always shop from the Authorized website.

2- Do not click any link on 'huge discount'.

3- If you are being asked for your bank account detail or Aadhaar card detail for an application update, then immediately disconnect the phone.

4- Do not click on any link without having complete information about it.

5- While making any payment, do not share your OTP, account number and CVV number with anyone.