The Mumbai Police have revealed that there has been a significant increase in cases of cyber crime this year compared to the same period last year. While cases of credit card frauds, creating fake social media profiles, obscene emails and tampering of source code have seen an increasing trend, the good news is that cases of phishing diminished, while no case of men-in-the-middle attack or e-mail spoofing was registered yet, the statistics revealed.
This year a total of 1,277 cyber-crime cases have been registered, of which only 136 cases have been detected compared to 1,097 cases registered last year, of which only 80 cases were detected.
This year, 260 cases of credit/debit card frauds have been registered, of which only 19 cases have been detected compared to 256 cases registered last year, of which only 9 cases were detected. In Mumbai, 112 cases of obscene emails/SMS/MMS have been registered, of which 40 cases have been detected compared to 97 cases registered last year, of which 40 cases were detected, statistics revealed.
There have been 26 cases of creating fake profiles/morphing, of which five cases have been detected compared to 15 cases registered last year, of which 3 cases were detected. There have been two cases of tampering of source code registered compared to one case registered last year. All three cases were yet to be detected.
This year, seven cases of phishing have been registered, of which two cases have been detected compared to 19 cases registered last year, of which four cases were detected. This year no case of men-in-the-middle attack or e-mail spoofing has been registered, while four cases were registered last year, of which one case was detected.
“More citizens are opting for cashless transactions, hence instances of debit and credit card frauds have increased. There are various ways fraudsters dupe citizens. The most common is debit cards being cloned using skimmer devices. We have now set up dedicated cyber police stations in all five regions to deal with such cases,” said a cop.
Speaking about what precautions one can take to ensure they are not duped, the officer said, “One should not share the card number, CVV and expiry date of the card. In case of suspicious transactions one should immediately contact the bank. Also beware while swiping your card at eateries and shops; do not share your PIN number with waiters and enter the PIN number yourself,” the officer said.
