KOCHI: The phone rang yet again and when Sandhya Kartha (name changed), an IT professional, glanced at the screen she was perplexed to see that the call was from the same unknown number from which she had been getting calls for past two months. Sandhya said, “I have been receiving calls and texts from unknown numbers, which the True Caller app in my mobile phone identified as belonging to someone based in North India.” She said, because of the app she was able to identify the calls. “I never attended the calls and got them blocked,” she said.
Nalini Mathew too is a victim of phone harassment. She has been receiving video calls and was aghast to find that she had been added to a WhatsApp group, which had many youngsters based in North India as members.
“I have never met these people in my life. I don’t know them and I also don’t know how they got my number,” said Nalini. She said the members of the group made video calls to her. “I exited from the group and blocked them,” she added. Though Nalini exited from the group, she began getting a number of anonymous calls. However, the frequency reduced once she ignored them.
Phone stalking is becoming a very common occurrence in the city and the sad fact is that many gullible women are falling prey to these unscrupulous people. Phones that ring incessantly in the middle of the night, vulgar SMSes, a dozen calls that are cut the minute you answer- all these are enough to drive a person up the wall.Many have approached the cyber cell officers regarding the issue. According police officers, the stalkers get the mobile phone numbers and other particulars from various insecure
sites meant only for data collection.
“Whenever a person surfs online shopping sites or installs apps in his or her phones, hackers known as data miners retrieve the numbers and personal information. They then sell it to people and also various private companies to make a tidy amount,” said the officers. So the next time you go online shopping or install an app in your smart phone be very wary of releasing personal information.
The officers said, if a person is facing such a harrowing experience, she or he should inform the matter to the police and the service providers. “If the stalker shows no signs of stopping, you may want to enlist the help of the law. Your service provider can block the calls and texts from specific numbers, while the police will be able to nab the person by tracing the call. People should also gather and preserve all evidence about such harassing calls,” an officer said.
Meanwhile, Kochi Cyber Cell SI Pramod Y T said, the Cyber Cell has been receiving such complaints every day. “If you are being stalked, you should contact the police. In many cases the perpetrators operate from North India and these people procure SIMs using fake addresses. However, if your contact number is not being floated around carelessly, it’s unlikely you will ever have to face such a problem,” he said.
Chasing the stalker
Team Express contacted one of the pesky callers posing as cyber cell sleuths. The man who spoke with a thick Bihari twang, was defensive initially, but when confronted with the call details, he started rattling off incredulous lies one after the other. Sandeep (suspectedly a fake name) claimed he was working with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in Jharkhand. The pack of lies came tumbling as his first claim that his phone was lost three days ago blew up in his face as several calls were received on the girl’s number hours before we made the call.
He hung up and rang back after a good 20 minutes with another flimsy excuse. Apparently, one of his staff had got the last digit wrong and hence the confusion, he said and apologised profusely. The girl’s number was in all likelihood compromised and shared in WhatsApp groups. She had been receiving a deluge of calls, including video calls, for the past several days. We tried all the other numbers as well. The moment we mentioned cyber cell, they all hung up and their phones have been switched off ever since.