Uttar Pradesh is second solely to Telangana (10,303 cases) by way of the variety of cybercrime incidents, recording 8,829 cases in 2021, of which 6,833 are pending. As many as 1,067 such cases have been reported in Lucknow throughout the identical interval, based on the Nationwide Crime Information Bureau (NCRB).
Subhash Chander, ADG, cybercrime, stated 90% of such cases in UP originate from states like West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Mewar area of India.
Based on the UP Police cybercrime division, the cases are very numerous in nature. Amongst these are cyber thugs duping energy shoppers by way of ‘faux pending electrical energy invoice’ messages.
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Not too long ago, an aged girl misplaced financial savings of ₹12 lakh when she clicked a hyperlink in an analogous faux textual content message. The sufferer, Asha Pratap, 80, of Noida who lives alone, acquired a faux message on September 2022 and a name from a person posing as an electrical energy division worker who requested her to pay the electrical energy invoice on-line or face an influence lower.
“Missing consciousness, she clicked on the hyperlink and misplaced ₹12 lakh, which she by no means received again as a result of she lodged her grievance very late,” stated Asha Pratap’s brother AK Mathur from Lucknow.
Regardless of submitting a cybercrime grievance, one other sufferer, Akshay Singh of Rae Bareli Highway, Lucknow, didn’t get a refund of ₹4,500, which he misplaced in an analogous ‘faux electrical energy invoice’ rip-off.
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“The incident occurred after I known as on the quantity after which adopted the procedures requested by the perpetrator. The quantity of ₹4,500 cash was debited by means of two transactions inside an hour,” he claimed.
MODUS OPERANDI
Sharing the modus operandi of cyber frauds, Chander stated within the ‘electrical energy invoice fee’ rip-off, the criminals often goal victims by way of two strategies.
By a textual content message, customers are knowledgeable that the electrical energy invoice for the earlier month is due and that the facility provide will probably be snapped at evening. The message is from a 10-digit cellular quantity, claiming to be from the facility workforce, which additional asks the patron to name to facilitate invoice fee.
“Nonetheless, the quantity belongs to cyber frauds. When a consumer calls on that quantity, they’re duped into downloading distant entry apps, together with ‘Anydesk’ or ‘Teamviewer’, which makes a clone of the cell phone, permitting the cyber thug to function/entry the sufferer’s cell phone from any location,” he added.
“Within the identify of penalty, they persuade the sufferer to pay a smaller quantity of ₹1, 10 or 11, which additional helps them to know the consumer ID and password of the sufferer and so they later withdraw a giant quantity from the checking account,” stated the ADG.
Within the second methodology, as a substitute of a cellular quantity, the criminals use a hyperlink that results in a phishing web site. When a consumer makes an attempt to make a fee transaction on the next web site, all particulars, together with a debit/bank card quantity, consumer ID and password, and so on, are retrieved by them which they then use to withdraw cash later.