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Nasir Ali
Srinagar: These days there is an upsurge in whatsapp calls from international numbers or calls from unknown numbers, alluring the listeners to give huge beneficial insurance schemes or asking for financial favors with attractive offers, in the form of Amazon gift cards, Paytm or any other digital payment method.
The Internet is being highly used by its abusers to reach and abuse children sexually, worldwide. The internet is very fast becoming a household commodity in India. Its explosion has made the children a viable victim to the cyber crime. As more homes have access to internet, more children would be using the internet and more are the chances of falling victim to the aggression of pedophiles.
The Minister of State for Home Affairs, Ajay Kumar Mishra in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha told that the Ministry of Home Affairs has operationalized a toll-free Helpline number ‘1930’ (earlier ‘155260’) for immediate reporting of financial frauds on the “Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System” module and to get assistance in lodging cybercrime incidents on the “National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal”. As per the data maintained by the National Crime Records
Bureau (NCRB), a total of 175494 financial fraud complaints have been received from 30.08.2019 to 30.03.2022 on this helpline. Such complaints are being handled by the respective State/UT Law Enforcement Agencies. The NCRB does not maintain specific data about the number of complaints disposed off out of the received complaints, a PIB release revealed.
These fraudsters also used to post an advertisement on social media platforms offering work from home mainly related to Packaging of Natraj Pencils, promising an earning of Rs 30,000 per month and cheat gullible people on the pretext of registration fee, Packing materials, Courier fee etc.
Musadiq Basu Dysp of Cybercrime Investigation Centre of Excellence, Crime Branch J&K, while talking with Asia Speaks told “Amid rising number of cyber fraud complaints the Government of India has set up a national toll free helpline No. ‘1930’ where victims can report cases of cyber fraud.
This initiative of Government of India is to facilitate victims/complainants to report cyber crime complaints online. This toll-free helpline caters to complaints pertaining to cyber crimes only with special focus on cyber crimes. Complaints reported on this toll free number are dealt by law enforcement agencies/ police based on the information available in the complaints. It is imperative to provide correct and accurate details while filing complaint for prompt action. The moment victim / complainant reports on above mentioned toll free number there are high probability of recovering of money which has been lost by fraudulently” Basu added.
“The modus operandi used by the fraudsters keeps on changing involved sending WhatsApp messages to people, mostly government officials, asking for financial favours, in the form of Amazon gift cards, Paytm or any other digital payment method. Anybody whether they are intellectuals or illiterates can and are falling prey to these cyber-criminals. Crime branch issue advisories from time to time to caution people on the new modus operandi/s being adopted by the online fraudsters to siphon their hard earned money. People are advised to be alert while using their internet-enabled devices including computers, smartphone and not to click any suspicious links. We have redressed large number of social media and financial fraud-related complaints and were prevented from being swindled,” Musadiq Basu told.
