Sees jump in cheating via email, social mediaCyber fraud graph heads north in UT

Amit Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 17

Cyber crime complaints related to hacking or creating fake email accounts to dupe people have witnessed a 200 per cent rise and complaints regarding hacking or creating fake social media accounts, including Facebook and Instagram, have increased by over 100 per cent this year.

According to the UT police, 198 complaints of cheating through fake email ID and 528 of hacking social media accounts have been received by the UT Cyber Crime Investigation Cell (CCIC) till September 15, while the complaints received for these offences last year were 61 and 259, respectively.

A police official said there was a steep rise in the number of complaints during the lockdown.

“One should never respond to requests for money transfer received through email and social media accounts of friends. It is advisable to verify by calling them up,” said Inspector Devinder Singh, incharge, CCIC.

Recently, some fraudster had created a fake Facebook account of UT DSP Dilsher Singh Chandel and demanded money as financial help from people who were in the cop’s Facebook friends’ list.

The lockdown due to Covid brought financial hardships to a large number of people. Many such people fell prey to fraudsters, who lured them on the pretext of getting them loan. As per the records, 106 such complaints have been received by the police this year, while the number was 40 in 2019.

Fraudsters are also targeting people through WhatsApp. This year, 119 such complaints have already been received by the police. “Fraudsters first save a person’s WhatsApp profile picture and then use it to target people by seeking financial help,” said a cop.

Similarly, complaints of online cheating by using details of debit and credit cards and by sending fake links through which money is stolen have also gone up. As many as 762 complaints have already been received by the police till September 15, in comparison to 876 received during 2019.

Meanwhile, the number of complaints of cheating through debit or credit card cloning or by exchanging cards has dipped this year as

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