While Delhi was under lockdown, cybercriminals had a field day
The number of cybercrime cases reported in Delhi spiked during last year's lockdown period, from nearly 2,000 in March to over 4,000 in May, as fraudsters adopted new methods to cheat people, the Delhi Police said on Friday. According to data shared by the city police, 62 percent of the cyber crimes reported in Delhi were related to online financial fraud.
Social media was used in an astounding number of cases
On the other hand, 24 percent of cybercrimes were related to social media and 14 percent to other cybercrimes. The data showed that from March to May 2020, when restrictions were in place due to the outbreak of COVID-19, there was a rise in cases related to cybercrimes. It went up from around 2,000 such cases in March to more than 4,000 in May.
People are being made aware: Delhi Police Commissioner
Speaking at the annual press conference, Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava said cybercrimes peaked during COVID-19 and declined later. He added that his force was dedicated to solving cases and creating awareness to prevent such incidents in the future. "Our CyPad is at the central level in our force which looks after these cases. Each district in Delhi has specific cyber cells," he said.
Cybercriminals adopted new modus operandi to target people
"We analyzed cybercrimes and the cases reported to us," Shrivastava said. Elaborating on the new modus operandi adopted by cybercriminals, the Delhi Police said fraudsters targeted people by creating fake government websites offering financial assistance, subsidies, and government jobs.
Other methods used to dupe people
"Extortion using edited porn videos, customer care, online search manipulation, phishing links in the name of schemes, news, and alerts pushed through emails and WhatsApp were other methods used to target people and dupe them," police officials said. "People were also duped in the name of KYC verification, e-SIM upgradation," the police said.
Criminals used COVID-19 and everything related to it
"People created fake government websites providing jobs to doctors and nurses for COVID-19 patients. There were people selling sanitizers, PPE kits, food, and groceries with the help of fake websites and cheating people," Prem Nath, Joint Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell), said.
A lot of people fell victim to 'QR code scam'
"Hackers gained access to bank accounts with KYC platforms and took the money. QR code cheating through Olx app became famous. Accused posed as customers and sent QR codes which when used would deduct money from victim's account," Nath said. In the 66 cases registered with mega cyber frauds last year, wherein 1,65,265 victims were targeted, 213 people have been arrested, according to the data.
Around 1,280 officers trained to investigate cybercrimes
"The force has trained 1,280 officers to investigate cybercrime cases. This training was imparted through video calls during the lockdown," the Delhi Police said. Police officials said they are working with 44 banks, e-wallet companies, and online merchants to prevent such crimes. "Talks are underway to bring RBI ecosystem on our live-testing portal which is developed by Delhi Police," they added.
