‘Digital Prahari’: KP’s cyber helpline gets 200+ calls in 24 hrs

Kolkata: Within just 24 hours of launching the round-the-clock cyber helpline styled as “Digital Prahari”, Kolkata Police has received an overwhelming response with more than 200 calls landed with queries on several cyber fraud issues, even some from the state police jurisdiction.

On Wednesday, Kolkata Police informed that in the list of queries, hacking of smartphones or electronic devices related matters is on the top.

The other domains about which the queries were sought are hotel bookings website-related fraud, bank account freeze or marked lien, scam through shopping links in social media, investment fraud complaints, and loan fraud complaints. Also questions about recovery-related issues in old cases were also asked by several citizens.

On the other hand, Kolkata Police is using its newly published newsletter “Cyber Pass” as a tool to combat cybercrime. According to the senior officials, by sharing the details of cases in the form of new articles, police officers of the city police, mainly the ones attached to the cybercrime wing, are narrating the methods of cybercrimes to make people aware.

Also, the citizens, through the newsletter, will suggest what to do in case any citizen becomes a victim of any kind of cybercrime. In the first issue, several styles of cyber crimes, like investment fraud, hotel booking fraud, fake government app-related fraud, and getting fake messages from friends and family asking for monetary help, were mentioned using instances of real-time cases.

Apart from these, articles were written about how to understand the authenticity of any sponsored advertisement and steps to get back defrauded money.