Cyber crimes surging in India, 50 pc cases related to UPI, Internet Banking

JKP organises cyber crime awareness programmes in Kulgam

MASROOR AHMAD

SRINAGAR: Cyber crimes are on the rise in India, Rajasthan’s Bharatpur and Utter Pradesh’s Mathura have replaced Jharkhand’s Jamtara and Haryana’s Nuh as the infamous hotspot of cyber crime.
In India Financial frauds accounted for over 75 percent of cyber crimes , from January 2020 till June 2023 with nearly 50 per cent cases related to UPI and internet banking according to a new study by an IIT Kanpur -incubated Start-up.
Social media-related crimes such as cheating by impersonation, cyber-bullying and email phishing accounted for 12 percent of the online offences during the period, the study said.
In view of the surge in cybercrime related incidents Jammu and Kashmir Police is organising awareness programmes across the valley enlightened the young generation and other people about the trending online financial scams carried out by the cyber criminals.
On November 16, two different programmes were organised by Kashmir police in Kulgam at Police Station Qaimoh and Police Station Behibagh.
These programmes were chaired by respective jurisdictional officers besides, other officers and officials of Police were also present. The events were attended by respectable citizens and youth of Behibagh, Qaimoh and other adjacent areas.
During these programmes, the chairing officers briefed the participants about various types of cyber threats and crimes such as identity theft, credit card fraud, data stealing, cyber stalking, OTP frauds etc and advised the participants to adopt safe browsing habits to avoid suspicious websites while surfing the Internet.
Officers also appealed the participants to not share OTPs or bank account details and passwords with anyone and officers also explained the ways to adopt precautionary measures while conducting internet banking and online transactions. Moreover, the participants were also cautioned against accepting friend requests from unknown persons or chatting with unauthenticated persons on social media.
According to various experts, it can be attributed to a complex interplay of various factors such as low technical barriers allowing individual with limited expertise to engage in such activities using readily available hacking tools and malware.
Inadequate Know Your Customer (KYC) and verification processes on online platforms enable criminals to create fake identities ,making it challenging for law enforcement to trace them, while easy access to fake accounts and rented SIM cards on the black market allow thugs to operate anonymously ,complicating the efforts to track and prosecute them, he said.
Meanwhile, participants appreciated the efforts of Police for organising cyber awareness programmes and spreading awareness about various cyber-crimes among the common masses but the local residents expressed concern that unemployment or underemployed individuals are recruited and trained by cybercrime syndicates, creating a growing pool of potential criminals.