THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Signifying Keralites awareness about cybercrimes, the Keralam Police have received a whopping 90,532 queries on their CyberWall chatbot within four weeks of launch.
The chatbot, with the mobile number +91 94979 64163 was launched on August 18 and is available on WhatsApp and Telegram. Even as users called up the number enquiring about phone calls, text messages, website links and applications that they came across daily, CyberWall got a boost after promotion by social media influencers focusing on tech-based content.
Cyber operations officials attributed the overwhelming response to the decision to move to a space where people are more active, rather than sticking to conventional awareness methods. In fact, daily queries have now risen to 10,893, which fluctuates based on outreach activities, said officials.
So how does it work? Well, people can send any input – text, image or audio – which they suspect to be a fraud to the CyberWall chatbot on Telegram or WhatsApp. It analyses the data, including mobile numbers, UPI IDs, bank account details, message sender, links, IP addresses and e-mail IDs, provided through the chat and matches those with ones that are blacklisted or under police surveillance.
Other commonly-seen hints of scams – websites with less traffic, options to enter OTPs, applications not listed in the Play Store – is also monitored based on the input. If any of the information is flagged as linked to a cyber fraud attempt, people are immediately alerted to register a case.
Most common queries reaching CyberWall are about links that claim a telecom firm is providing new offers, or ones that ask users to share a link to a certain number of people to win an iPhone and the like.
“The move has helped people of all generations,” Cyber Operations SP Ankit Asokan told TNIE.
“The approach aimed at spreading awareness among people in a space where they are active. Not all will think to check whether a message they got is fake or not. But here, the government and police are on the other side to do that work, to check if the sender is a scammer. People consider this a reliable and easily accessible option,” he said.
Ever vigilant
Chatbot (+91 94979 64163) Launched on Aug 18
90,532 queries received between Aug 18 and Sept 14
Daily queries reach up to 10,893
Chatbot available on WhatsApp and Telegram