Surat: Surat, which has witnessed a maximum number of cybercrime cases among other cities in Gujarat last year, is emerging as the newest hub of related crimes. The city accounted for 26 per cent of total cybercrime cases in Gujarat.
A white paper by the Future Crime Research Foundation (FCRF), an organisation facilitated by the IIT Kanpur, said Surat is evolving into the nation's newest cybercrime hotspot. The report analysed cybercrime incidents reported across the country between January 2020 and June 2023. According to the study, as many as 83 small towns and cities across 18 states are turning into cybercrime dens.
Online financial fraud, hacking, and impersonation are the most common types of crimes mentioned in the study. In 2022, as many as 371 cases were reported in Surat. While Ahmedabad registered 261 cases, Baroda city stood third with 55 cases and Rajkot city ranked fourth with 38 cases, the data said.
Kutch West and Kheda districts are other vulnerable areas. During the same time, 20 cases had been reported in Ahmedabad Rural, 13 in Rajkot Rural, 18 in Surat Rural and 15 in Vadodara Rural. As many as 35 cases have been reported in Ahmedabad Cyber Range, three in Rajkot, eight in Surat and eight in Baroda Cyber Range.
ACP Yuvraj Singh Gohil of the Cybercrime brunch of police said, " Surat is the economic capital of the state and people here are engaged in lucrative jobs along with business. Often people do not even realise that they are becoming victims of cyber fraud. We're doing our best to tackle such crimes but sometimes people don't lodge complaints. Awareness campaigns are being run to sensitise citizens. Surat Cyber Cell has also detected 90 per cent of all crimes committed."
Two years ago, a Nigerian man was arrested for cheating people through fake websites in the name of more than 40 reputed hospitals across the country. The gang members used to lure people who paid Rs 4 crore and even Rs 7 crore. A youth from Surat was also implicated in this fraud. The gang members were arrested by Surat police cyber cell from Bengaluru.
Surat police's crime branch also arrested the gang that cheated crores of rupees from 744 people across the country by taking customer care numbers from the Jamtara area of Jharkhand. The gang which operated out of Jamtara duped people by posting fake customer care numbers of courier companies on Google.
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