E-Paper
Punekars lost ₹108 cr in cyber frauds this year
The maximum complaints are related to task fraud, stealing identities, threatening to viral defamatory and sexual content of a woman online, online banking and cheating
As many as 25,000 cyber fraud-related complaints were received by the Pune police this year till December 22 which is 58.67 per cent increase as compared to 19,500 complaints in 2022 and 19,000 in 2021.
Residents lost ₹108 crores to cybercriminals during 2023, said police.
The maximum complaints are related to task fraud, stealing identities, threatening to viral defamatory and sexual content of a woman online, online banking and cheating. The fraud comprises bank fraud, sextortion, power bill fraud, loan app fraud and telegram app-based fraud.
Police inspector Meenal Patil, incharge of cyber police station, said, “The citizens must refrain from any link sent by an unidentified mobile number and must not share their password details of ATM or credit cards.”
“Also, people must not take loans from any unknown online loan apps or must now download unknown apps at random,” she added.
The cyber police register an average of 15 to 20 frauds each at the cyber police station while the detection rate is 10 per cent.
The city police administration has appointed a special cyber task force composed of a senior police inspector and five police constables.
If the cyber fraud is below ₹25 lakh then it is assigned to the police station and if the online fraud amount is above ₹25 lakh then it is handed over to the cyber police station.
The victims can lodge their complaints at the 1930 helpline number or email crimecyber.pune@nic.in or lodge their complaints on the national cybercrime portal of the union government.
