Even as the police use technological expertise to crack cyber crimes, the offenders are coming up with more ingenious ways to dupe people.
The latest trend in cyber crime is that of sending e-mails announcing job offers i.e., appointment letters from reputed companies wherein the prospective candidates (i.e., victims) are asked to express willingness by responding to the mail for a job in upcountry destinations with reputed companies and even public sector undertakings.
At the bottom of the ‘offer letter' there would be a request to the recipient to remit a caution deposit to secure the job. The e-mail will also ask for the caution deposit to be sent to the account of an official supposed to be heading the human resource department of the company! If the recipient is not cautious enough, then precious money is lost.
The racketeers posing as employers, collect the resumes/CVs of their victims from private agencies who conduct job fairs across the country. City Police Commissioner Amaresh Pujari points out that people should be aware of the recruitment processes of major companies in order to avoid being duped. They should also come forward to prefer a complaint rather than withdrawing into a shell and being secretive about the whole incident. Their complaints will help saving other people from becoming victims, he added.
It may be noted that the law enforcing agency initially came across threats via e-mails, obscene SMS and threatening/lewd phone calls and Nigerian criminals. Then struck the online bank fraudsters, hackers and dubious announcers of prize- money in lotteries through SMS and e-mails.
Regarding the Nigerian gangs, after successful breakthrough in a couple of cases, there is a temporary lull according to police officers dealing with those kinds of crimes. Mr. Pujari says that victims of obscene SMS or obnoxious/ prank calls should come forward to prefer complaints and their identities would be kept confidential. The Police Commissioner pointed out that cyber crimes are easy to commit and hard to detect but the force today is equipped to tackle the menace after being put through effective training. According to Mr.Pujari, any announcement or offer of job/prize-money that appears to be “too good to be true, is certainly not true”.
The Police Commissioner says the number of complaints, of late, is on the rise. It is not an indication that cyber crime was on the rise but people have just begun to prefer complaints, he adds.
