It’s very bad in a developed city where working professional are living, Incidents of cyber crime have risen by 265% in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida since last year, according to Centre for Cyber Crime Investigation (CCCI) data. The CCCI received 1,482 complaints of cyber crimes till September this year, as compared to 560 complaints in 2016. The maximum number of complaints were related to stealing of credit and debit card data.
The incidents of cyber crimes in the district this year have risen by 265%. The Centre for Cyber Crime Investigation (CCCI) in Noida received 1,482 cases of cyber crimes till September this year against 560 complaints in 2016, officials said.
While financial frauds related to stealing of credit and debit card data took prime spot both the years, use of abusive/aggressive language on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, formed the second largest chunk of complaints from the district.
“With increase in penetration of smartphones, internet banking, cashless payments and technology-related ignorance among users, IT-related frauds have seen a sharp rise,” said Vivek Ranjan Rai, in-charge of cyber cell, Gautam Budh Nagar.
Credit and debit card related frauds have seen a jump of more than 400%.
A total of 563 cases of credit and debit card frauds have been reported at CCCI so far this year with three months still to go. Last year, the total number of cases in the same category stood at 139.
“While most complainants related to credit and debit card frauds traditionally come from senior citizens and people with limited understanding about such transactions, now even well-educated and tech-savvy people are falling prey to such crimes,” Rai said.
Cloning of cards, replacing cards at ATMs, cloning SIM cards to get OTPs, all have become common practices these days, Rai said. Lottery,tower,insurance related frauds have also seen a sharp rise of 550%. Against a total of 65 cases reported last year, the number in this category stood at 362 this year. Cases of use of abusive language on social media doubled this year.
A total of 421 cases of social media abuse were reported till September 2017, this number was 275 last year.
Creating fake profiles and abusing strangers over the internet has become common and mostly goes unchecked.
“Compared to last year, the cases related to abuse on social media have risen, but we estimate that double this number is still going unreported,” Rai said.
Out of the total 560 cases registered last year, the CCCI Noida solved 409 cases, 151 cases are pending. Rai explained that since online crimes have no geographical restriction, tracing each and every case is very difficult. “Some hackers are so intelligent that they do not leave any trace behind,” he added.
Recently a university website was hacked and pro-Pakistan slogans were posted on its homepage. When the Noida police started investigating the matter, they discovered that the hacker used a proxy IP address to hack into their servers.