visakhapatnam: Even as cases of cyber crime have jumped by leaps and bounds in the city in the last one year, sleuths of the cyber crime investigation cell (CCIC) are at a loss on how to check and nab the tech savvy criminals.
Of late, internet has become an easy tool for frauds and threats.
Cases relating to frauds like the online lottery (Nigerian frauds or black dollar scam) and online job opportunities have registered around 200 per cent rise in 2013, under Vizag police commissionerate.
Statistics revealed that seven online lottery frauds were reported in 2013, against only two cases in 2012.
Similarly, 40 cases of online job frauds were reported in 2013 while it was only at 12 in 2012.
For a period of four years, from 2010, as many as 71 cases related to online job frauds were reported.
However, only 16 cases were charged and 43 major cases are still under investigation.
Similarly, 9 cases related to black dollar scam were registered from 2010 but not a single case was cracked by CCIC, so far.
Sources in the police department said lack of adequate staff and sufficient trained hands at CCIC were hampering them from cracking the cases.
Majority of the e-mails or SMSes saying that an individual has won a lottery of a certain amount of prize money are generally sent by Nigerian nationals based in Mumbai and Delhi.
However, due to lack of tech savvy cops and less staff at CCIC, the cases are remaining unsolved.
Commissioner of police B. Shivadhar Reddy said that majority of the cyber crime victims in Andhra Pradesh were Vizagities in 2012. As many as 154 cyber cases were registered at CCIC in Vizag.
