Chennai: The other day, a deputy commissioner of police in Chennai city received a call asking for details of his credit card. The caller told him that he was calling from the SBI card division and started asking him details after correctly telling him his credit card number. “Because of the kind of details the caller was asking, I was sure it was a fraudster who was trying to get my card CVV number. When I used the choicest abuses, the caller snapped the line,” recalled the deputy commissioner.
Like the police official, many Chennai residents have been receiving such calls asking for details of their credit card numbers and CVV numbers from fraudsters claiming to represent banks.
Mr R. Vasagan Arasu, a resident of Kodambakkam, was one such unsuspecting victim. An insurance consultant, he received a call saying that his rewards points were accumulating and his bank was sending him a gift box worth over Rs 20,000. “During the very long, engaging conversation, the caller managed to extract the CVV number from me. Within minutes, I received a message saying that I had made a online purchase worth Rs 20,000 using my credit card. Last month, my sister, too, received a similar call,” said Mr Arasu.
Last week, the record clerk of an insurance firm received a call saying that his card was due for upgradation and the caller collected all details including the CVV number. The next day, he found that his card was used for making four online purchases worth over Rsd 16,000.
“It can hit anyone, anywhere and any time,” said Union home minister Rajnath Singh while delivering his address at the passing out parade of regular recruits of the Indian Police Service at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad last month.
He was referring to cyber criminals operating without boundaries.
“It is not necessary for a cyber criminal to reside in a particular town or country as these are crimes that can be committed sitting in any corner of the world,” he told the gathering, adding that cyber crime is growing at the rate of 50 per cent in the country.
Cyber criminals empty your bank account, they stalk you online, they shop using your credit cards online, they post malicious messages about you on social medial networks. In short, they can make your life hell.
When Mr Rajnath Singh was talking of cyber security, in Chennai, city police officials were discussing a way to deal with WhatsApp rumour-mongers. They decided to register a case against rumour-mongers who use social media networks and mobile phone app line WhatsApp to spread malicious messages. Chennai police’s cyber personnel registered a case after a fraudulent WhatsApp message about an IT professional employed in Thane, near Mumbai, started popping up in WhatsApp of a large section of smart phone users in the city.
Every month, the Chennai police receive around 40 complaints of abuse on the social media. “Of course, right now we get more complaints about abuse in the social media,” said an officer. This does not mean that the police are not receiving complaints of data theft, bank fraud and online frauds.
“There are gangs that hack into emails and online bank accounts of businessmen. They watch the transactions and communications for over a period and then, posing as one of his clients, collect huge payments,” noted a cyber crime official. To stop such cases, one should be alert. “Even after a few hours of online fund transaction, we can stop the bank from making the final payment. If the transaction is within the country, we can do something. But once the money is gone into the fraudster’s account, he will withdraw it immediately,” cautioned the official.
Handling complaints of uploading malicious posting in FB is relatively easier. “If we provide the URL (universal resource locator) details, we can ask the service provider of that particular IP (Internet protocol) address and locate the abuser if he has used any Indian IP address (server),” disclosed the officer.
But social media abusers sometimes behave in a smarter way and mislead policemen by creating a proxy address. “Some ask their friends working in foreign countries to upload the pictures and text from there, thus bypassing the Indian IP address,” the official added.
Not everybody at the cyber cell is very comfortable and enthusiastic about their work. “They need to update skills and attend refresher courses. They have to look through a lot of data to find leads. Besides, interacting with service providers and Internet giants like Google or Facebook may not always get the required result,” the officer added. Most of them end up taking call data records of suspects of regular crimes after liasoning with service providers.
At the city cyber cell there are around 30 members, including 3 inspectors and 6 sub-inspectors. “We make sure to bring in technically qualified people to this wing if they are available through recruitment. It is not that we probe only cyber crimes. The cyber cell has become a very important part in investigating regular crime because investigating officers always look for evidence in mobile phone data of the victims and the suspects. So, we track the call history and mobile phone signals for the investigating team on a regular basis,” the official added.
Who can stop mischief-mongers on social media?
The big question of how to control and bring to book mischief-mongers on social media and message sharing services remains.
“We don’t think we can do much with WhatsApp chain messages. If it was an SMS message chain, we can request the service provider to track the beginning of the chain. But in WhatsApp, it is not possible unless the app maker, with its server in the US, feels that they should help us. We are sure that this will not happen. Of course, we can request and track the origin in FB and shut down the particular account,” pointed out a police officer whilediscussing the hapless situation they are in.
At most, with existing laws, the police can book culprits for a bailable offence under the relevant section of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which the investigators feel, is already out of date. The act allows police to book people for ‘Sending offensive message through electronic means’ (Sending any information through an electronic message that is grossly offensive or has menacing character and might cause insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, or ill-will, etc., or sending such mail intended to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages).
