Navi Mumbai police unleash Cyber Warriors to tackle rising cyber frauds

New awareness campaign launched involving 1,000 young students who will create awareness in their neighbourhood about common cyber frauds and how to stay safe

Navi Mumbai

Navi Mumbai, India - Oct. 6, 2023:Navi Mumbai police start cyber awareness in the city with the help of students during Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Milind Bharambe with Bollywood Actress Pooja Hegde at CIDCO Exhibition Center Vashi, in Navi Mumbai, India, on Friday, October 6, 2023. (Photo by Bachchan Kumar/ HT PHOTO) (HT PHOTO)

With already an 81% increase in the cyber crime cases registered in Navi Mumbai, Police Commissioner Milind Bharambe has started an initiative of ‘My neighbourhood, my responsibility’ by assigning ‘Cyber Warriors’ in the city. The program that was inaugurated on Friday in the presence of actress Pooja Hegde and around 1000 students from the city, urged the students to come forward and become the ‘cyber warriors.’

“Elders at home are the ones who guide the children in everything, but the only place wherein they require the help of the children is to understand the latest technology. Today’s generation is called as ‘Gen Z’ for being techno savvy. While many of the youngsters understand and realise how cyber fraud works, most the of the adults still don’t understand and hence it is necessary that the youngsters take it upon themselves to make sure that not just the adults of their house, but also of the neighbouring houses are well versed with the common frauds happening and how to prevent them,” Bharambe said.

He invited the students to work with the department for this cause and become ‘cyber warriors’. “We would provide the power point presentation and other literature that is required in this cause and would also provide certificate of the department. This is just the beginning of the movement of cyber awareness and we would spread this across the city with the help of the youngsters,” he added.

With the help of three short films, the police presented before the audience the gamut of cyber frauds unsuspecting victims fall prey to. A banker who was present said, “Earning money is important, but more important is to protect the earned money. Whenever a fraud happens, one should report it to ‘1930’ which is National Cybercrime Reporting Portal.”

“Everyday there are new modus that the habitual offenders find to cheat people. Cyber warriors would keep a tab of all those new modus and educate their family and neighbourhood,” Bharambe added. Hegde said, “We have two selves. One the real self and another is the digital self. Today, all our personal data is out their in the web world, making us highly prone to cyber frauds. This is one such crime that is rampant and yet avoidable by just being alert and aware.”

In 2019, 124 cyber fraud cases were registered in Navi Mumbai, which shot up to 302 in 2020 and 190 cases in 2021. While the detection decreased from 50 detected in 2019 to 54 in 2020 and 48 detected cases in 2021.

In 2022, the number of cases registered increased to 207 of which 54 were detected. This year till September, the number of registered cases have already surpassed the 2022 annual numbers. Till now 225 cases have been registered of which 42 have been detected.

“Most of the offenders in such cases operate from the rural areas of West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand. Tracing them is next to impossible due to the fake documents that they use to procure sim cards and bank accounts. Even if they get caught, the money would have been by then got transferred to different people and withdrawn as well. In such cases, a person can lose all his money just by a click and never get them back so the best way is to avoid being cheated by not sharing any kind of OTP to anyone and not clicking on any suspicious links,” an officer said.

Of the 207 cases registered in 2022, 12 were of Remote Access Desk and Any desk app frauds. Fraud victims were made to download these app through which the accused gets full control of the phone of the victim and is able to see all the OTPs that he gets on his phone. This year, 15 such cases were reported.

Bank fraud cases reported last year were 51 while 34 this year, fraud via social media reported was 31 last year and 37 this year. The frauds that are on rise this year is that of job task wherein victims are asked to comment on various social media posts which were 27 reported last year while, 35 this year. Frauds via loan apps is also on rise which were nine last year and this year 15 have been reported till now.