Soon, a special cell in Mumbai to deal with vishing, spam-related frauds

The cell will comprise of a few handpicked police officers, who will be report to special inspector general Maharashtra (cyber), Brijesh Singh.

In the wake of increasing vishing and spam-related cybercrimes, the Maharashtra cyber department has decided to create a dedicated anti-phishing cell at the World Trade Centre in the city. The cell will be handling and investigating all such cases from across Maharashtra.

Over the past few years, thousands of people across the state have been duped by cyber-fraudsters. (HT File)

Confirming the development, Balsing Rajput, superintendent of Maharashtra cyber cell, said, “The cell will focus on analysing vishing, phishing and other spam-related cybercrimes occurring across the state. The idea is to have a focused probe.”

The cell will comprise of a few handpicked police officers, who will be report to special inspector general Maharashtra (cyber), Brijesh Singh.

Over the past few years, thousands of people across the state have been duped by cyber-fraudsters who pose as executives of banks, insurance companies, income tax department, etc, over the phone and trick victims into revealing their personal credit or debit card details on some or the other pretext. These details are then used to withdraw money from their bank accounts. This type of frauds is termed as vishing, which comes under the head of credit/debit card frauds. The victims of vishing frauds do not get their money back from the banks as they are also at fault for sharing their personal financial details.

Several cases of vishing go unreported as the complainants do not register FIRs. The Mumbai police’s Twitter handle receives several tweets from people informing them about phone calls from cyber-fraudsters on a daily basis. The police find it difficult to track the accused as the calls are made from far off states and the SIM cards used are bought using forged documents.

Apart from vishing cases, the cell will also analyse spam emails, SMS and other spam-related cybercrimes.