PRAYAGAJ: In a bid to check rising cases of cybercrime in small districts of Prayagraj zone comprising Mahoba, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot, and Banda, the senior zone cops have tweaked their approach to tackle increasing instances of cybercrime.
In many cases, officers are now focusing on halting the transfer of stolen amounts so that they could be reverted to complainants rather than ending up with fraudsters. The usual modus operandi of criminals is to bait unsuspecting account holders on the pretext of either correcting electricity bills online, or sending fake SMS, and e-mails for winning lotteries.
Cops, however, mooted an extensive plan to create mass awareness among rural folks for not sharing OTPs\ UPI pin and screen sharing app as well as not answering unknown video calls. Moreover, zone police have engaged cyber experts to impart training to investigation officials (IOs) to identify fake websites and SMS, tracking criminals through IP addresses and checking crime on social media sites. Additional DG (Prayagraj zone) Bhanu Bhaskar told TOI, “Around 400 cops from ranking constables to Additional SPs were imparted training by cyber experts at reserve police lines of Banda, Hamirpur, Chitrakoot and Mahoba wherein experts interacted with IOs and briefed them about techniques of investigations. He added, ” Cyber experts gave tips to policemen to handle social media crime, financial fraud, and other sorts of cybercrime. They also discussed digital footprinting and investigation methods to crack down heinous cases.” Bhaskar said, “Collection and analysis of logs from telecom providers and intermediaries was discussed in detail- CDR, IPDR, TDR, ILD_ CDR, IP Logs from social networking sites.” Besides, cyber experts also highlighted the importance of digital evidence, IT act and its sections and relevance.
Moreover, the Cyber Help Desk and QRT team were briefed about 1930 and the collection of attributes from the victim at the time of complaint.