With digital push, cops on their toes to tackle rising cyber crimes in Ggn

With more Gurugram citizens now shifting towards digital means, the criminals have also taken to the digital medium quickly. As Gurugram transitions into a digital phase, the city continues to witness an upward trend in cyber crime cases.

The maximum number of cyber crime cases is associated with online banking through credit and debit cards.

Other kinds of cyber crimes that follow are data theft, setting up fake websites, website hacking and sending threatening messages on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

In 2016, there were more than 2,400 cases of cyber crimes that were officially registered by the Gurugram Cyber Crime Branch out of which, there were 1,343 online thefts from credit and debit cards.

Other major cyber crimes were hacking of email ids at 97 cases, threatening messages on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter at 151 cases and data thefts at 43 cases.

The worrying trend of cyber crimes and thefts has continued even in 2017.

According to Gurugram Cyber Crime Branch officials, not only are the online thefts on a continuous rise in Gurugram but also are the amounts, that are shooting up with every passing day.

The Cyber Branch officials also mentioned that on an average, there are more than 100 cases that are registered every month on online thefts.

In a recent arrest made by the Gurugram Cyber Crime Branch in 2017, an employee of a private finance company tried stealing crores by hacking the company's server.

"Cyber crimes, especially online thefts, continue to be on a rise in the city. As the digital medium continues to be new for many people, they can be easily fooled by the criminals and robbed. Most of the online theft cases happen through a sales or a service call where cyber criminals through the course of the conversation are able to get your account numbers and thus carry out the thefts.

These criminals have now made a move towards online payment mediums where they are able to get your one time passwords (OTP)," said a Cyber Crime Branch official.

"The cyber criminals have also perfected the art of duping people through use of social media platforms. We recently arrested a Nigerian group who created a fake Facebook account to befriend a citizen in Gurugram and using the medium, he used to dupe him," added the official.

ACP Manish Sehegal, who is the spokesperson of Gurugram Police said: "A big challenge in dealing with cyber crimes is that most of the criminals may not be even in the city and therefore, it becomes difficult to catch hold of these them."