The annual review by the Vijayawada police has revealed that the cybercrime rates in the city has shot up by a whopping 53% compared to 2016.
In 2017, the police registered as many as 185 cases of online fraud – including 120 cases of bank fraud, where the one-time password was stolen, 24 cases of internet abuse, this included WhatsApp, Facebook and email, and four cases where ‘inappropriate’ videos were uploaded.
According to Gautam Sawang, Commissioner of Police, Vijayawada, 46 of the 120 cases of bank fraud were solved and Rs 27,83,649 was recovered.
Gautam said, "The way we use technology has changed and criminals have adapted to this, resulting in the rise of cybercrime.”
“Following demonetisation especially, people are encouraged to switch to digital payments. Those who aren’t aware of how this works end up falling prey to criminals.”
He appealed to the public to not reveal their personal bank details to anyone. “No bank official will seek OTPs or debit and credit card numbers over the phone. Such incidents must be reported as soon as possible.”
He also hinted that the police may set up its own cybercrime division to tackle crime online.
Crimes against women
The city has also seen a 9% increase in crimes against women – there were 902 cases reported in 2016 and 992 in 2017.
However, the number of dowry deaths, murders, kidnaps and rape cases have fallen.
Alarmingly, the number of cases that fall under the categories of ‘outraging the modesty of women’ and ‘abetting suicide’ have shot up by 32.83% and 22% respectively.
The CP said that in most cases of violence against women the perpetrators are usually known to the victim, such as their family, friends and neighbours.
The Mahila Rakshak team is working with the Mahila Mitra Mandali to put an end to the harassment of women in public spaces.
“There were 1860 cases of harassment reported and of the accused have been counselled by the Mahila Mitra. The good thing about this in initiative is that none of the people counselled so far have repeated the offence. This sort of friendly and community-level interaction is helping us a lot,” Gautam said.
In this year, 148 cases of girls going missing were registered, and while 142 victims were traced, 6 are yet to be found. In most cases, it was found that the girls leave their house due to depression or fear of something, the CP said.