Over 2,800 cyber crime cases reported in Mumbai in 2021

Mumbai:  Over 2,800 cases of cyber crime were reported in Mumbai in 2021, city police chief Hemant Nagrale said on Tuesday, blaming the time-consuming procedures of social media intermediaries for the low detection rate of such offences.

Nagrale was speaking to reporters at an event organised for the publication of Annual Report-2021.

A total of 2,883 cyber crime cases were reported in the city in 2021, which is 448 cases more than offences registered in 2020, the city police commissioner said.

As many as 2,435 and 2,518 cases were reported in 2020 and 2019 respectively, he said.

The police had detected 16 per cent of the cases in 2021, while the detection rate was 9 per cent in 2020 and 14 per cent in 2019, he said.

Talking about the low detection rate of cyber crime cases, Nagrale said, "Cyber crimes are faceless and servers used in such offences are mostly located out of India." "Social media intermediaries do not respond in a time-bound manner and ask for mutual legal assistance treaty and letter rogatory procedures, which can be time consuming," the police chief said.

Cyber fraudsters use VPN, tor browsers and masking techniques that make it difficult to identify them, he said.

The accused in cases of cyber fraud are often located out of Maharashtra. Few of the prominent places that emerged recently were Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Rajasthan, which are densely populated states, making it difficult to trace the culprits, he said.

Investigating officers at local police stations need to be trained in cyber investigations, Nagrale said.

While initially there was only one cyber police station in Mumbai, the city now has five police stations in each region that work under the crime branch, he said. The detection rate in regional cyber police stations was 59 per cent, which is better than the 13 per cent rate at regular police stations, he said.

"We are in the process of developing these units and training officers for detection of more cyber cases," Nagrale said. The Mumbai police has been providing continuous training and skill upgradation to its personnel, joint commissioner Milind Bharambe (Crime) said.

The city police will procure tools worth Rs 20 crore to Rs 25 crore to deal with cyber crime and criminals, he said.

Speaking about the challenges in detecting cyber crime cases, Bharambe said the modus operandi of cyber fraudsters is that they use multiple SIM cards and cheap phones, which they throw after use.

"They use advanced technologies for encryption and diversion because of which it is challenging to identify their IPs and locations, the official said.

Some pockets in rural areas have emerged as 'cyber hubs', where youngsters indulge in cyber fraud, he said.

The city police chief appealed to the public to contact the police immediately if they get constant calls or messages about money getting debited from their bank accounts.

People should inform cyber or local police stations, so the procedure of stopping further transfer of the funds can be initiated and the money can be retrieved, Nagrale said. (PTI)