Don't fall prey to cybercriminals and fraudsters: CID

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The CID has appealed to the people not to fall prey to email or WhatsApp messages from cybercriminals and fraudsters. Rising cyber-crime and cyber-fraud cases in the state have worried the CID.

According to police sources, the state had 696 cybercrime or cyber fraud cases in 2016. Such cases increased to 3.530 in 2020 and nearly 5,000 in 2021-22. Cybercriminals leave none, including ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats, let alone commoners. They open fake accounts in the name of high-profile personalities to defraud them.

The CID continues to upgrade its mechanism to check cybercriminals. However, an official said, "Cybercrime knows no boundaries and has no jurisdictions. We need to combat the cyber threat jointly through information sharing. We have set up a regional cyber coordination centre in Guwahati. If the people are not alert, our efforts will do precious little. The National Cybercrime Reporting Portal has recently sent around 3,800 complaints on cyber crimes in Assam. Various police stations in the state are booking the complaints."

According to CID sources, fraudsters gather information about a particular organization/department and its employees from the official website or gain unauthorized access to the contact list of a senior functionary. And they send email and WhatsApp messages to some selected subordinates from the list to dupe them.

"Please confirm/verify from your superior officials before making any payment on such links," an official said. He added, "In case you receive any such WhatsApp message, save the screenshot for subsequent investigation and also report the number to WhatsApp directly by clicking on the report and file a complaint via cybercrime.gov.in by enclosing the screenshot."

According to sources, fake messages like sanctioning online bank loans, power disconnection messages asking consumers to contact a number, winning cash prizes, information regarding ATM blockage, etc. Banks and other public authorities never send such messages to their customers through WhatsApp.

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