Technological advance aiding new cybercrime, CEN police needs upgradation...NOW!

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: Of the 8951 cybercrime cases pending across 9 Cyber Economics and Narcotics (CEN) police stations in the city, the police have so far managed to crack only 10 percent of the cases in the last 11 months.

In 2021, the CEN police had claimed to have solved around 2062 cases out of 6423 cyber-crime cases. According to sources from the police, at least 2886 fresh cases in which the victims have lost their money to online fraudulent links had been filed at the CEN police stations in the last year.

However in 2022, the numbers of registered cyber related cases have gone up to 3838. As technology advances and the use of it evolves, so does cybercrime and the way criminals capitalise on vulnerable security systems for their gain.

The CEN police said that per day, on an average, they receive around 27 cases related to cybercrime. Among the total number of cases, at least 1753 cases were related to online theft of money where the victims are lured by unknown persons promising to provide free gifts, lottery, and attractive loan schemes.

748 of the cases are from the victims who lost their money to cyber crooks who had taken money from them with a fake promise of a job. There are 557 cases from the victims suffering from harassment and blackmail by unknown people through the internet.

The remaining cases are related to crypto-currency and matrimonial frauds, an official from CEN police station told News Trail. It is also worth noting that this year with 1297, Bengaluru West Division CEN police have the most cyber-related cases registered. South Division police have registered at least 1237 cases so far while North Division has 1160.

Central division police have the least number of complaints with only 888 cases filed this year. In a bid to curb cybercrime cases, the Karnataka government had launched cybercrime (CEN) police stations in 2017. Around 46 cybercrime police stations are operating across the state, with 9 in Bengaluru.

Despite the state Home Minister Arga Jnanendra having said , that an exclusive unit had been set up in the CID to deal with cybercrime complaints and the police are also employing the advanced technology to investigate the cases, large number of cyber crooks have been evading the CEN police.