Mumbai among the worst-hit urban centres in cyber offences

According to a survey, the Mumbai police have managed to solve just 15 per cent of cyber offences registered this year.

Mumbai among the worst-hit urban centres in cyber offences
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According to a survey, the Mumbai police have managed to solve just 15 per cent of cyber offences registered this year.

The city cyber police till October 31, 2021, made just 657 arrests in 2,369 cases. However, it has come to light that the detection rate rose in the first 10 months of 2021 compared to 8.5 per cent in 2020 and 12.8 per cent in 2019.

In order to get a better idea of the modus operandi of cybercriminals, the police have differentiated between crime categories.

With the help of categorisation it was found that the jobs fraud increased because of the ascendancy of work-from-home arrangements and unemployment due to pandemic. However, owing to this, many lost their savings to fraudsters who demanded money in exchange for ‘job offers’.

Other categories include -- online purchase fraud, loan fraud, fake website scam, customs or gift fraud, cryptocurrency fraud, sextortion, obscene email, morphed email, credit card fraud, and pornography.

As per data revealed in the survey by TOI, between 2018 to 2021, a total of 2,648 credit and debit card fraud cases occurred, but only 131 cases could be solved in all.  Meanwhile, a major category of concern is miscellaneous cyber offences, where out of 3,732 cases, only 411 could be solved.

Mumbai is among the worst-hit urban centres when it comes to cyber offences.

Officials stated that qualified cyber investigation officers are few. The IT Act warrants officers of at least inspector rank to be investigating officers, and they are in short numbers. Police need to spend more on resources to track cybercrime. This includes trained staff, sophisticated hardware and a dedicated helpline for the public.

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