The increasing cases of cyber crime in Odisha may emerge as a big challenge for the Odisha police in 2023.
According to the information shared by the Odisha police, in 2019-20, 1,475 cyber crime cases were registered. The year 2020-21 witnessed a slight increase as a total of 1,931 cases were registered. However, the number of cases crossed 2,000-mark in 2022-23. A total of 2,036 cases were registered in the year. However, it has been alleged that the actual cases of cyber crime are much more than what the police department is sharing.
During these three years, a total of 5,443 persons fell prey to the cyber fraudsters and lost Rs 91,65,00,000 to them. Of the duped money, the police managed to recover only Rs 1,37,00,000, resulting in people losing their faith in the police.
When asked, DGP Sunil Bansal ascribed the upward trend of cyber crime to the increase in the digital transactions.
“Besides digital banking, people’s online trading and online payment are also increasing. This is why there is a surge in the cyber crime cases,” said Bansal.
“To control the cyber crime, new police stations have been established. We are providing them with the latest technology to deal with cyber crimes. Our officers are also receiving training in and outside the State,” he added.
If the cyber experts are to be believed, a cyber fraud is taking place in every 10 seconds. A corresponding trend is also being witnessed in Odisha.
According to these experts, since the cyber criminals keep using new tricks to dupe people, the police should have information not after the crime but before it. They are of the opinion that there should be helpline number so that people can inform the police about the attractive offers cyber criminals are offering.
“To protect ourselves from such frauds, we have to increase the ambit of our awareness. The cyber fraudsters generally use 20 to 30 fixed modus operandi. So we have to know them,” said Prashant Sahu, cyber expert.
Meanwhile, the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) have busted a job fraud racket and arrested the mastermind identified as Zafar Ahmed (25), a resident of Aligarh, who is an engineer (B Tech) by profession. The racket allegedly duped as many as 50,000 aspirants in five states including Odisha.
(Reported by Atulya Baut from Bhubaneswar, OTV)