KOCHI: As the world becomes increasingly mired in the digital sphere, crimes that exploit the layman’s unfamiliarity with its labyrinthine ways are also on the rise. In keeping with the global trend, Kerala, too, has seen a surge in cyber crimes, which are slated to eclipse ‘offline’ cases in the coming years.
As per police data, there have been 685 cyber crimes registered in the state in the last six months. This is nearly 85 per cent of all such crimes reported in the previous year. The severity of this surge is laid bare when one also compares it with data from 2016 when online platforms were only making inroads. Then, only 282 cases were registered in the state.
In view of this, cops and cyber security experts are of the opinion that it is high time for both the public and law enforcement agencies to give this growing menace its due priority. Ernakulam district reported the highest number of cyber crimes registered this year. Ernakulam Cyber Police Station and Kochi City Police Station saw nearly twice as many cases lodged in the past seven months than in the whole of 2022.
It’s a similar scene in Thiruvananthapuram. The City and Rural cyber police stations here have registered as many cases this year as they did in the whole of 2022. According to M B Latheef, the Ernakulam Rural Cyber Police Station SHO, cyber crime cases are reported on a daily basis now.
“We receive complaints from the public daily. The majority of the cases involve enticing people by offering jobs. Many people have lost money to cyber fraud. There are also cases of impersonation, phishing scams, and cyberbullying.” Latheef says.
The officer said that it is high time that people started taking precautionary measures to prevent falling prey to such crimes. He said that people should be aware of various cyber frauds taking place so that they can easily identify and thwart such attempts on them coming by way of social platforms or even through phone calls.
Part-time (con)job
The Covid pandemic and the economic meltdown that accompanied it saw many losing their jobs. Cyber fraudsters capitalised on this pall of gloom. In July this year, a woman from Kunnukara in North Paravoor received a job offer via Telegram from an online company. Desperate for a revenue stream, the woman accepted. She was given daily tasks on the transfer of a small sum. At first, this seemed promising as she was able to earn almost double what she had invested. However, when she started investing larger amounts in hopes of landing a decent profit, the returns dried up. The woman lost Rs 7.91 lakh.
Online game
Last year, police dealt with a spell of cases wherein cyber fraudsters targeted children who play online games. Since parents refuse to pay for these games’ many in-app options, fraudsters lure children by offering them loans to make these purchases. Once the money is credited, the harassment starts. They insist that the victim repays double the amount received. If the money is not paid, the victims are defamed on social media platforms. One of the tactics employed is accessing the victim’s mobile phone and sending messages to all the contacts, including morphed pictures.
Verification trap
Last year, a Thiruvananthapuram-based retired school teacher posted an advertisement for renting his house on a famous classifieds website. Soon, he received a call from a Hindi-speaking person introducing himself as an Army officer. Gaining the trust of the former school teacher, the accused promised to pay Rs 1 lakh in advance. For this, he asked the victim to transfer Re 1 to his UPI account as part of the verification mandatory for army officers. After sending the money, Rs 50,000 was debited from the victim’s account on two occasions. The ‘officer’ has been unreachable since.
Impersonation
In June, Deepak Thomas, the chief financial officer of Asset Homes, received a WhatsApp message from an account that carried the company’s managing director, V Sunil Kumar, as its profile picture. The message asked for Rs 41.81 lakh to be transferred from the company’s account to another. Believing that this instruction had come from Sunil, Deepak transferred the sum, only to later learn that this was an elaborate fraud. Kochi Cyber Police, which registered a case, arrested four persons from Uttar Pradesh recently. It was found that Sunil’s picture was picked from online platforms.
Gift fraud
An Aluva native, who befriended a UK citizen through Instagram, is told that the latter has sent her a very valuable gift through an international courier. Later, the victim received a call from New Delhi stating that a parcel addressed to her was seized at the airport there as it contained gold and money worth Rs 1 crore. It was told that to release the parcel, the victim had to pay certain taxes - Rs 10 lakh. It was only after paying that the woman realised that she was duped.
‘KSEB’ shocker
Recently, a 55-year-old Alangad native received a message from an unknown number claiming to be a representative of KSEB. The man was informed that he had to update his KSEB bill to pay the monthly bills and that if not done, he would face severe consequences, even the disruption of electricity services. The fraudsters insisted the man install a remote access app named Quick Support on his mobile phone. With this, they were able to access the mobile phone of the victim and divert a sum of Rs 2 lakh from his account.
‘Customer care’ chicanery
This year, a Choornikara native lost Rs 24 lakh after he received a call from a person claiming to be an executive of a leading bank in which the victim maintained an account. The fraudster claimed that as the man had not updated his KYC, his account would be frozen. Promising to assist him, he sent a link to install a bogus app on the man’s phone. Using this, the accused managed to siphon money from the man’s account.
Fake marriage proposal
After a Nayarambalam native created an account on a leading matrimonial website, he got a call from a woman claiming to be a student in Canada. She expressed interest in marrying the victim. Later, the woman told him that she was coming to India with her family, who were based in the UK, to fix their marriage. On the day of her arrival, the victim received a call from a person claiming to be an official at New Delhi airport. He was told that gold and cash were found in the woman’s baggage and that they could only be released after paying a fine. The victim transfers Rs 2.37 lakh from his account in an effort to help. The woman was unreachable after that.
Overseas job scam
Last year, Thiruvananthapuram City Cyber Police arrested four Keralites based in Mumbai who swindled Rs 50 lakh on the false promise of securing jobs in Canada. Apparently, they had received the details of victims from a prominent job portal. The victims were first interviewed over the phone and, subsequently, by a female foreign national. After holding these interviews, the youngsters were given offer letters. Later, the accused charged hefty sums from them in the name of emigration services.