On January 12, a Sector V-based BPO employee was arrested for data theft. Within a week, his colleague was arrested on the same charge. 

Cyber space is the new hunting ground for criminals and danger could be lurking closer than you think.

A Facebook-based social group Chilekotha had organised a cyber crime awareness camp at SOS Children’s Village in BK Block where they brought in experts to speak on the issue. 

Bidit Kumar Mondal, officer-in-charge, cyber cell, Bidhannagar police, began by telling the audience how back in 2005 it was mostly Africans who would come to India and commit cyber crimes. “They would rent a house saying they had come for medical treatment, use the address proof to buy innumerable SIM cards and use them to con people. But since then, local crooks have caught on so citizens must learn to protect themselves against cyber crime,” he said.
In 2014, 1.5 lakh cyber crimes were reported in India, he said, but the count had already touched 3 lakh by mid-2015. 

He described some common ways how people getting duped online. 

“A lot of women in the 35-plus age group befriend men from abroad on Facebook. Then on the woman’s birthday, the man says he’s sending a gift, which apparently gets stuck at customs at the airport. The man will typically ask the woman to make a payment of Rs 2,000 to 5,000 to clear it,” said Mondal. But the gift apparently keeps getting stuck at different desks and the woman keeps transferring money to release it, not knowing that it is all really going to the man.

“The amounts typically start small so the woman does not suspect anything. And by the time the net amount gets huge, she thinks all her money would go waste if she doesn’t pay another lump sum and free it. She would have spent a lot before she would smell a rat,” said Mondal.

A lady in the audience said someone had been bothering her by sending messages on Facebook and even creating fake profiles with her photographs. Mondal asked her to use the “Report” option on Facebook as well as lodge a complaint with the cyber crime office. 

Another woman said she had been duped by an agency that had promised her a job in exchange of money but had disappeared after the transaction was made. 

“This is another racket,” began Mondal. “The crooks place advertisements promising government jobs to people without any experience. Please use your common sense and realise that this is not possible. Verify the advertisement with the company’s website, call them up or visit them before falling for something like this.”

He harped on not divulging personal information to people calling up and claiming to be from banks etc. “No matter how innocuous the information seems, do not share. A doctor was recently getting extortion calls from a man who was repeatedly blocking his cellphone service. It turned out that the man had been calling up the doctor’s cellphone provider and saying that it had got stolen and that he wanted the number blocked. As proof, the cellphone provider had been asking for the doctor’s personal details, all of which the con man had tricked the doctor into revealing over the phone beforehand,” said Mondal.

He said cyber cafes were not the safest places to be checking personal information and asked the audience to use anti-viruses and keep updating them. “And use virtual keypads (which appear onscreen) when you get the option when typing in credit card details or the like. This is because if a crook has installed a ‘key logger’ on your computer, he would know every key that you type on your keypad,” he said. 

Also present at the meet was advocate Bivas Chatterjee, who has been appointed the state’s public prosecutor for cyber law and electronic evidence cases. “People visit bank lockers from time to time to check if their jewellery is safe but no one seems to care about all the personal data that gets stolen. If World War III ever happens, the cyber world would be a crucial battle field,” he said. 

A booklet on cyber safety was distributed and Kankar Prasad Barui, deputy commissioner of the detective department of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate, urged the audience to read it and share what they learnt with others. “Awareness and caution can save you from falling prey to cyber criminals,” he said. 

Sekhar Roy, a member of Chilekotha and also the inspector-in-charge of Bidhannagar East police station, said their group conducts awareness camps and activities for the needy in different sectors. “We’ve done programmes for senior citizens, street children and meritorious students too.”