Coal belt DIG Saket Singh on Thursday said police must adopt advanced technologies, act swiftly and rationally to outsmart suave, educated new-age criminals, who are posing tough challenges for security agencies.

"Present day criminals do not always attack with arms, they do not move in the jungles like Naxalites. These tech-savvy, intelligent criminals can siphon off lakhs of rupees from one's bank account with one phone call or e-mail without physically intimidating the victim. Under this changed scenario, cops need to learn the tricks of modern-age policing, use advance technologies and remain up-to-date to deal with the evolving challenges," he said.

Showing the call log off his mobile phone, Singh said an unknown person called him in the morning, claiming he was calling from the bank with which the DIG has an account. The caller further claimed that Singh's account had been frozen so he must share the details of his bank account, including pin code, with the caller so that he could restore the account.

"If cyber criminals are not scared of calling me, one can imagine how easy it for them to target common people, who often fall into their trap and give away their personal details and end up losing their hard-earned money. The crime patterns have drastically changed in the past few years," said Singh, who earlier served as the Bokaro SP between 2008 and 2011.

Talking about the rising crime graph in urban belts, Singh said: "Five years ago, there was hardly one or two cases of cyber crime reported. But now everyday, we are getting reports of cyber crime. New strategies should be adopted to check urban crime."

Apart from cyber crime, the main problems facing the zone have remained more or less the same even after five years.

"Other two problems facing the two districts are - Naxalism and economic offences," he added.

After taking over charge from DIG Upender Prasad, who had been shouldering the dual charges of coal belt and Hazaribagh, last week, Singh met both Bokaro SP Y.S. Ramesh and Dhanbad SSP S.K. Jha to take stock of the law and order in the twin districts and chalk out strategies to end Maoist menace.

In Dhanbad, Tundi, Topchanchi and a few nearby pockets are still witness rebel activities while as many as six blocks under the Bermo subdivision in Bokaro are badly hit by the Left-wing extremism.

Sources said Singh held elaborating meeting with Jha and Ramesh on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, giving them directives to improve policing and create a people-friendly image for the police. The DIG also discussed with the SPs strategies to check coal smuggling.