Mumbai’s Cyber Cell has come up with an innovative and interactive way to spread awareness about cyber crimes amongst college students in the city. They organise street plays that give out important messages on, “Do not share one time password (OTP), on credit card frauds and phishing.”
The plays explain different types of cyber crimes taking place in the city and focus on the need to not share Know Your Customer (KYC) details on the phone and online. Each play lasts for 30 minutes and a team of professionals are hired to perform them in Hindi and Marathi. After the play is over, police personnel step in to describe ways in which hacking, sextortion, credit and debit card, e-commerce, ATM and loan related frauds take place today.
The Cell started this programme in collaboration with Quick Heal Foundation and has been conducting plays since December 1. It will go on till December 19. “We have got a very good response from colleges. We have interacted with thousands of students and have planned to conduct street plays in 300 colleges. We have covered the southern and eastern regions of the city and will be looking at colleges in the northern and western regions. The idea is to engage as many students as possible and this medium is very engaging,” said Balsing Rajput, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber.
The initiative comes under the ‘Cyber Safe Mumbai’ campaign undertaken by the department. A poster making competition was also organised by the cell that covered messages like, “Be Aware of Electricity Bill Frauds”. This listed out how to verify a message that comes to the mobile phone on paying electricity bills. The police officials highlight the need to, ‘Not pay bills from untrustworthy sources. Do not install any apps that allow you to share your screen with others.’ The other message is, ‘Be Aware of Fake Personal Loan Apps’. They mentioned, “While using apps, do not allow permission to access your photos, videos and files, do not share OTP. Do not share bank details, read privacy policy, terms and conditions and reviews before installing any app.”
