60% of reported cyber crimes pertain to financial frauds
Cyber crimes continue to be a growing menace for the state’s police department following a spurt in the number of cyber crime cases.
Sensitizing the public on the wide range of cyber crimes and their modus operandi Visakhapatnam’s police commissioner Mr CH. Srikanth, IPS said that cyber crimes have not only become very rampant but more sophisticated in their execution.
‘Cyber crimes if not controlled can become even more dangerous than nuclear weapons’ opined the city’s police commissioner addressing the members of the Vizagapatam chamber of commerce and industry.
Mr Srikanth detailed a slew of cyber crime cases that had taken place in the city and cautioned the public to be more vigilant and watchful in their interactions with unknown people.
‘As we have often been told. Do not chat with anonymous people. Fraudsters can lure you into simple chat messages, get your attention and thereby siphon off your money’ said the city’s Police commissioner.
AP stood 7th in terms of cyber crimes in the country while Vizag came in first in the state.
Acknowledging that investigation rates are poor and that many cyber crimes are not even reported the CP said that Vizag city reported a large number of cyber crimes followed by West Godavari and Kurnool.
‘60% of cyber cases reported are related to financial frauds’ cited the city’s commissioner of police.
Speaking on some of the challenges in cracking cyber crimes and more importantly getting money back he said it’s very complex and onerous task.
‘User anonymity & pseudonymous, location anonymity, device and network anonymity, cross border digital evidence handling, govt to govt evidence exchange’ are just some of the challenges we face in our investigations’ said Mr Srikanth.
Elaborating on the types of cyber crimes he identified email frauds, data theft, lottery scam, net banking/ATM frauds, social media crimes as being some of the most rampant.
The police commissioner also cited lack of awareness on cyber security both at an individual level and an organization level to be a significant reason for the increasing number of cyber crimes.
VCCI president Mr Satish along with members Mr Monish and Mr Rolland Williams thanked the CP for addressing the members.
