The city has witnessed a spurt in the ‘open source offences’ and fake websites cases if the data available with the Cyber Crime Police Station in Visakhapatnam are any indication. According to the police, the ‘open source offences’ and fake websites cases have emerged as a new trend this year, accounting for around 30% of total cyber crime cases reported.
‘Open source offences’ can be explained as the crimes committed by misutilising the data available on the public domain.
This year, the Cyber Crime Police Station has registered around 540 cases when compared to the 576 reported last year. Majority of the cases are One Time Password (OTP) frauds, while the rest are e-commerce site frauds, abuse on social media, matrimonal frauds and etc.
Explaining the modus operandi of the open source cases, Cyber Crime Inspector V. Gopinath says that customers usually search in Internet for customer-care numbers if there are any issues with the products they have brought online.
Modus operandi
“Seizing the opportunity, fraudsters set their numbers as the customer-care helplines and assure the customers that their team will receive the defective products from their doorsteps. In the process, fraudsters ask for ATM card details, promising refund the amount. After gullible customers falls prey to it, fraudsters siphon money from the customers bank accounts utilising the confidential debit card details. Such cases have touched almost 30% this year,” Mr. Gopinath explained.
The next major frauds are associated with fake websites. “Fraudsters create fake websites in the name of renowned companies selling household products, food, cellphones and others. When a person applies for dealership of the company, they would ask for an initial deposit and once the victims deposits the money online, they sever all contacts,” the Inspector said.
This year, the Cyber Crime Police have closed down the domains of around 40 fake websites and action is being initiated against many more.
It may be recalled that the Cyber Crime Police have once summoned the officials of top e-commerce site to discuss the issues related to frauds and asked them to plug some loopholes in the system.
Money recovered
This year, the cyber crime cell was upgraded to a full-fledged police station, and this appears to have started paying dividends, when it comes to cracking of cases.
“This year, fraudsters have duped gullible people of around ₹4 crore in various cases. With the latest technology available at the upgraded police station, we have recovered almost half of the amount. Moreover, we have sufficient staff now,” Mr. Gopinath added.
