With over 200 cyber complaints received in the national capital every day, the Delhi Police’s hands in 2023 remained full with online scams – ranging from sextortion to OTP and work-from-home frauds.
Police said cyber cases have surpassed murder incidents, kidnapping, and thefts in Delhi. While two murders, 32 kidnapping cases, and 1.7 theft cases are reported in Delhi every day on an average, the police on Sunday said they receive at least 200 cyber complaints every day. The data has been accessed from Delhi Police’s cyber stations, social media, and National Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP).
Officers said their job is not just restricted to catching the accused behind the 200 complaints as they also have to analyse the additional 9.6 lakh complaints and calls received on the Ministry of Home Affairs’ NCRP portal. Most of the perpetrators in the cases are not from Delhi but the police have to take cognizance of “emerging trends” in cybercrime and make further arrests, they added.
An officer posted at Delhi Police’s IFSO (Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations) unit said they look at all organised cyber fraud, adding that there were different kinds of gangs for each type of cyber crime. “We have found that most gangs operate from Mewat. Our teams are on the constant lookout for Mewat-based gangs so that more cases can be solved as gangs are busted,” said the officer.
Talking about their modus operandi, police said the gangs mainly target people using OTP scams. “They either pose as technical staffers and take OTPs from people or lure people to invest in fake mobile applications. The gangs are also involved in job scams as they offer fake jobs to students and later steal all their information. Mewat-based gangs are also involved in several sextortion cases. They hire two or three women who make video calls to retired government officers or doctors. They then trap the victim into extortion…” added the officer.
Gangs operating from Jamtara and other regions of Jharkhand are called KYC scamsters as they mainly call people by posing as officers from banks or other companies and “scare” the victims by telling them that their KYC forms aren’t filled and that their bank accounts could be closed any day.
“People assume that the caller is a genuine banking official or insurance officer and trust him. Some people also receive bulk SMSes about the KYC. They don’t cross-check and share details with the caller to save their account but end up losing all their money. The gangs in Jharkhand and Bihar also target gullible people on the pretext of fixing their banking application or phone banking,” said another officer.
One of the most recent and popular scams, the ‘WFH- Like videos, get rich’ scam is mainly operated from Delhi, UP and Haryana, police said, adding small gangs are “copying” the famous modus operandi as it is easy to find targets by employing the method.
“We have had complaints where people have lost more than Rs 20 lakh. The accused made a proper Telegram group and a fake website to show that they were offering a real job. They target women and unemployed people who are desperate for a job. They tell them (their targets) to put money into their company to enable them to access the website and earn more money. Initially, people do earn some amount by liking videos or doing similar tasks,” said another officer.
