Howrah police on Sunday started a drive to spread awareness against online fraud and to ensure the safety of women and children on social media.
Officers said the number of cyber crimes against women and children had grown manifold in the last two years, compared with crime related to property.
An officer of Malipanchghora police station in Howrah said a 15-year-old boy in the district who had his Facebook account linked with two internet gaming accounts was recently approached by an unidentified person through Facebook, who offered to buy his gaming accounts.
“The boy gave away his Facebook ID and password to sell the gaming accounts but did not get the promised money,” he said.
The unidentified person then threatened to circulate the boy’s photographs that he took from his Facebook account.
Confused and scared, the Class X student narrated the incident to his parents, who reported the matter to the police.
The Howrah police said they had received many such complaints involving students and women who have been duped on online platforms.
“In the last two years we have seen a drastic change in the crime pattern. There has been a reduction in property crimes, matched by a sharp growth in online crimes against women and children,” said Howrah city police commissioner C. Sudhakar.
The first round of awareness drive, led by the inspector-in-charge of Malipanchghora police station, Amit Kumar Mitra, stressed the precautions that netizens, especially women and children, need to take on social media platforms.
“Children have been exposed to smartphones in the last two years. Many fraudsters are taking advantage of this and duping children. Women, too, are vulnerable to online crimes. Hence, we want to create more awareness on how to stay alert,” assistant commissioner, north, Abdul Gaffar said.
One of the participants said she was unaware about several safety issues. "I receive many calls every day. I would always call back whenever I could not take a call,” said Sambuddha Nag, headmistress of a school.
“Today, I learnt that I should be careful while responding to calls from unknown numbers or calling back such numbers.”
The police said social media users should not divulge too much personal information, refrain from posting personal sensitive photographs and should not trust strangers.
