ISHTIYAQ AHMAD
EARLY TIMES REPORT
SRINAGAR, Dec 21: There has been an increase in cyber-crime with Cyber Police Kashmir received over 300 complaints about misuse of social media in 2020.
An official of Cyber Police Station Kashmir said new and powerful cyber-attacks are striking the internet regularly in the valley.
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 ones reputation.
“Online frauds and misuse of cyber space is on rampant in 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 cyber space mostly online financial frauds. The online fraudsters and scammers keep on changing their modus operandi in order to dupe/cheat gullible public,” the official said.
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 market place 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.
Cyber Police Kashmir was established in Nov 2019 and since then it is under the supervision of Tahir Ashraf, SSP, Incharge Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone, Srinagar.
“This Police Station has received more than 400 financial fraud cases, 300 complaints with regard to misuse of social media in the year 2020 only and majority of the cases have been disposed of. Besides, 27 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.
“As many as 500 complaints with regard to missing of 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 said that constant effort and timely action by various teams of Cyber Crime Kashmir were successful in recovering/ refunding of a huge amount of approximately rupees Fifty one lakh (51,00,000) 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 Cyper Police Station Kashmir Zone, Srinagar.
“Sadly in Kashmir digital frauds through social media and fake calls has become a new way of crime and most of the people have harmed. But at the same-time the cybercrime department is taking serious contingence in which SSP Tahir Ashraf is playing a vital role to stop such crimes,” the official added.
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