Stay vigilant, avoid falling victim of cybercrime scams: Cyber police to public
Srinagar: In the light of rising number of cybercrime scams, the Cyber Police Kashmir has urged the general public to be vigilant and take necessary precautions to protect themselves.
An official of Cyber Police Kashmir told news agency Kashmir News Service (KNS) that new and powerful cyber-attacks are striking the internet regularly in the valley.
“Cybercriminals are constantly devising new ways to trick people into revealing their personal information or financial details. It is important to be aware of the latest scams and to be cautious about any unsolicited emails, phone calls, or messages,” he said.
The digital frauds through social media and fake calls have become a new way of crime and most of the people have been harmed in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
There has been an increase in cyber-crime with Cyber Police Kashmir received over hundreds of complaints about misuse of social media.
The official said that a minor lapse in managing digital lives can open the door to cyber criminals. Cyber criminals can steal money or damage one’s reputation.
“Online frauds and misuse of cyber space is rampant in the entire world and the users in Kashmir valley are not immune to these threats.
Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone, Srinagar has been receiving scores of complaints with regard to misuse of cyberspace mostly online financial frauds. The online fraudsters and scammers keep on changing their modus operandi in order to dupe/cheat the gullible public,” the official said, insisting not to be named.
Cybercrimes i.e. phishing, data theft, identity theft, online lottery, cyber-attacks, job frauds, banking frauds, cyber-bullying, online blackmailing, morphing, revenge porn, cyber hacking, child pornography, cyber grooming, cyber-stalking, data diddling, software piracy, online radicalization are the common crimes.
Some of the new trends in Kashmir of financial frauds that are used by cyber criminals include OTP/ vishing fraud, online marketplace frauds, online gaming frauds, job/ loan offer frauds, online shopping frauds, app frauds etc.
Cyber Police Kashmir is also receiving complaints with regard to misuse of social media which includes creation of fake social media accounts, picture/video morphing, deep fakes, obscenity, cyber bullying / stalking, online harassment, child pornography etc, the official said.
“This Police Station has received hundreds of financial fraud cases, complaints with regard to misuse of social media and majority of the cases have been disposed of. Besides, scores of FIRs have been registered against the cyber criminals involved in various cybercrime cases and most of them have been arrested and have been produced before court of law for their judicial determination,” the official said.
“In the recent time 500 complaints with regard to missing mobile/ theft cases were also received by this Police Station and around 340 of such missing mobile phones worth lakhs of rupees were recovered by using conventional/ technological methods and were subsequently handed over to the rightful owners. Cyber Police Kashmir remains on the forefront in helping the citizens from various technological challenges, being faced by the citizens in their day today life,” the official said.
The official told KNS that the constant effort and timely action by various teams of Cyber Crime Kashmir were successful in recovering/ refunding a huge amount of gullible public who were trapped in various financial frauds.
On the directions of Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Zone Srinagar and in order to safeguard general public from cybercrimes, various awareness campaigns/ programs have also been initiated by Cyber Police Kashmir through electronic/ print media, pamphlets, social media platforms, radio etc wherein general public is being made aware about various contemporary online frauds, misuse of social media etc, the official said.
Cyber Police Kashmir has advised general masses time and again to remain very careful and not to fall prey to various cybercrime frauds like winning unexpected prizes or lotter, job offers, installation of mobile tower offers, loan offers, insurance bonus offers etc and also not to share any bank details /personal details or transfer funds to unknown persons in anticipation of high returns.
People have been advised to report such incidents immediately to Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone, Srinagar.