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Cyber Criminals Not Experts But Common Man’s Vulnerability, Ignorance An Advantage

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Cyber Criminals Not Experts But Common Man’s Vulnerability, Ignorance An Advantage

AHMEDABAD: Technology has enabled everyone today to engage in something constructive or destructive, and the unemployed youth is attracted towards the destructive path to earning easy money. With a massive increase in the number of online transactions, there also has been an upsurge in cyber crimes.

Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch reported around 15,000 cyber crimes which have been registered in Gujarat since January 2020. Frauds in the name of customer care, OLX (Online Exchange marketplace), cashback, credit cards, and offering jobs are some of the most common crimes.

Amit Vasava, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad Cyber Crime, said that technology is just one touch away due to smartphones, but the problem is that many don’t know how to use this new advancement. They are unaware of cyber security and thus fall prey to cyber criminals.

More than 25 types of ways of operation used by cyber criminals have been noticed by the cyber crime cell. These include cheating in the name of customer care, OLX-related fraud, conned with the offer of cashback, swindled in the name of credit card, and deceit under the pretext of offering a job, loan fraud, lottery fraud, an offer of gifts, fake links, etc.

DCP Vasava further said that investigations of the cyber cell have indicated that different cyber criminals work from different pockets of different states, and thus operate particular crimes from particular areas.

Fraudsters who contact you through phone and social media operate from states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Delhi, and Haryana.

Other frauds that include video calls and related to OLX are carried out from Alwar and Bharatpur in Rajasthan, and Mewat in Haryana. ATM frauds have been traced to Mewat and Bihar while customer care fraudsters carry out their operations in Bharatpur and Alwar in Rajasthan, Mewat in Haryana, and Noida near Delhi.

Sending fake links and OTP frauds are mostly carried out from Jamtara in Jharkhand, and most of the fake jobs that are created through social media are carried out by hackers in Delhi and Noida.

A remarkable thing to notice has been that most cyber criminals are not very well trained but they simply take advantage of common people’s vulnerability and ignorance.

“People are using smartphones to operate their social media handles, bank accounts, and payment apps, but are not familiar with the safety features of these apps. Thus this has resulted in Gujaratis becoming the easiest target for cyber thieves in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Bihar,” Vasava added.

According to the cybercrime sources, the State Bankers’ Committee has till now registered 16,000 complaints of cyber cheating.

A large number of the e-cheating complaints include – customer care cases: 2,387, the KYC frauds: 2,073; OLX fraud: 1,805; cheated using cashback offer: 1,403; cheated with fake identity: 1,169; frauds in the lieu of jobs: 1,056; credit or debit card frauds: 1,013.