Six-fold increase in cyber crime cases in Gurgaon over last five years

Cases relating to ATM fraud and debit/credit card fraud are also on the rise

The city has witnessed a six fold rise in cyber crime cases over the last five years. Cases relating to ATM fraud and debit/credit card fraud are also on the rise with more than double the cases registered until November 2015, compared to the whole of 2014, the police said.

Cyber cell has registered 921 credit/debit card fraud cases in 2015 as opposed to 394 in the whole of 2014. (HT File Photo)

The cyber cell of the Gurgaon police registered 1,923 cases in 2015, almost half of which are related to debit/credit card fraud.

According to the police records, of the 921 banking fraud cases, 633 are related to ‘ATM card switches’ where conmen switched ATM cards after offering help to people in kiosks across the city.

In 456 cases, fraudsters transferred money online using options such as e-wallets and purchased commodities through various online shopping sites, the police said.

“The fraudsters are taking advantage of the people, who may not have banking/internet awareness. Despite several awareness campaigns throughout the year, many residents become targets of such fraudsters,” Navdeep Singh Virk, Gurgaon commissioner of police, said.

The crime of duplicating identity is not limited to online transactions or online banking. People, who do not pay attention to the contents of sensitive information that they receive, online or offline, such as requests for personal details, bank or credit card numbers and ATM pin numbers among other things, easily fall prey to fraudsters.

With internet banking gaining popularity and customers not visiting bank branches like they used to, fraudsters can easily dupe people, who are not so familiar with new-age banking, the police said.

People do not care about the fact that their personal information such as name, date of birth, address, phone number and email id are easily accessible on the internet. With this bit of basic information, some fraudster can even buy a phone connection or a credit card, pretending to be someone else. Victims do not get to know of this until they start getting bank statements and phone bills, the police said.