In what could bring relief for victims, mainly of financial fraud, the city police are set to launch a Cybercrime Incident Report (CIR) system in the first week of April. Victims can launch a complaint on a call, and the police will work with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to freeze the beneficiary’s account within the golden period of two hours.
A pilot project was launched in the last week of December 2020 and has been deemed a success.
“It is a novel, people-friendly system where we try to give immediate relief for victims of cyber crime, especially financial fraud, for the first time in the country,” said Kamal Pant, Commissioner, Bengaluru City Police.
A victim of online financial fraud has to call 112 and raise a complaint, giving available details. This is registered as a Cybercrime Incident Report (CIR) and transferred to a panel of cybercrime investigators in the CIR cell at the control room, which is networked with Reserve Bank of India and a host of other banks.
“Most times, the victims provide us with the phone number from which they got a call or an SMS, using which we try to track the beneficiary’s bank account. A report is shared with the RBI and, if we know, the bank concerned. RBI has designed an SOP for the project, fixing the golden period as two hours, within which the banks have to act and freeze the beneficiary’s account,” said Isha Pant, DCP, Command Centre.
“The golden hour is important as the account has to be frozen before the money is withdrawn or spent,” she said, adding that it is an evolving process. “If the money is found in the account, the victim needs to lodge an FIR and access the money through a court order,” she said.
Presently, as part of the pilot project, the CIR cell has five dedicated lines and 20 cybercrime investigators working in three shifts, which will be expanded once the service is officially launched. “All calls to the control room reporting cybercrime are transferred to the cell. On an average, we get 20 calls a day, which we expect to shoot up once the project is launched and given wide publicity,” Ms. Pant said.
