The other day, Srinagar Police claimed to have arrested three people in the case of ‘digital arrest’ by posing as officials from TRAI and CBI to coerce victims into transferring money. As per Police, ‘Digital arrest’ is a new cyber fraud, where the accused pose as law enforcement agency officials, like CBI or customs officials, and threaten people of arrest by making video calls in the name of fake international parcels of banned drugs. The case that Police solved was about a senior citizen who was cheated by scammers impersonating officials from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and was made to deposit more than 20 lakh rupees to a fraudulent HDFC Bank account. Three scammers were arrested one from Shamli (UP) and two from Patiala (Punjab). While the Police has urged the citizens to exercise caution while sharing sensitive financial information and warned against falling prey to such schemes, fact of the matter is that cybercrime are increasing with every passing day and people are getting cheated.
Cybercrime might be a new thing to Kashmir, but the world has been grappling with this for quite a long time. Over the years, developed societies like that of Europeans and Westerners have succeeded to curb the cybercrime menace to a large extent by bringing tougher laws into practice. Also, these countries have developed enough checks and balances to tackle cyber risks. Experts say that we do not have sufficient laws in place here. We are still governed by the Information Technology Act, 2000; and some sections such as 420 and 468 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), to take care of cybercrimes and suggest some harsher laws to handle the growing cybercrimes in our society. However, of late the J&K administration has started taking steps to strengthen the cybercrime cell and the cyber wing of J&K Police is focused largely on mass awareness to ensure that the people – the internet users – know their vulnerabilities in the virtual world.
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In the modern digital world, cybercrimes are a reality and thus need to be taken head on. Since the usage of gadgets and the internet has increased everywhere and by everyone, the possibility of the misuse of technology by criminals has also risen. For example, after the outbreak of the COVID, most of the people turned to online shopping; and, eventually, the police started getting complaints of scammer buying. The police has also been receiving complaints about cyber frauds like KYC (Know your customer) scams. In these scams, the targets get calls from various phone numbers asking them to furnish their bank account details for the updation and verification. Unfortunately, some of the targets, due to their ignorance, get befooled and they reveal their bank account details and passwords to the callers. And then they end up getting robbed. The police has been getting many complaints about the things like identity theft, and pornography victimization. In the cases of identity theft, the crooks use the name and picture of the target to create a fake social media account and then use it for personal gains. Also, hacking complaints are most frequent in our society. In the above mentioned case, the scammers pose as officers of government agencies and cheat people. It is high time that UT administration and Police strengthen the cybercrime cell, launch a massive campaign making people aware about cyber frauds and also have a dedicated 24X7 help line wherein people, who get suspicious calls or messages, can register their complaints.
