Nagpur: The Covid-19 imposed lockdown turned out to be a field day for cyber crooks as Nagpur witnessed a rise of 46.09 per cent in cyber crime cases in 2020. The fact was revealed in an RTI query.
During the lockdown, the online transactions increased in the city and the users became easy targets for cyber thugs. The information of cyber crimes reported from 2016 to September 2021 was sought by RTI activist Abhay Kolarkar. The data stated that 243 cases of cyber crimes were registered in 2020 as compared to 112 in 2019. In 2016, the city reported 96 cases of cyber crime, 81 in 2017 and 108 in 2018.
According to information, the usage of online transactions suddenly zoomed during the lockdown as people were staying at home and ordering a variety of items from food to electronic gadgets online. The cyber crooks targeted the people on pretexts such as jobs, online offers, Know Your Customer (KYC) verification and social media profiles. In some cases, it was noticed that the fraudsters created fake websites providing jobs and medical aid to Covid-19 patients and also selling PPE kits and food on these websites. Some senior citizens were duped on the pretext of KYC verification related to bank accounts, the RTI reply stated.
The data showed that the cyber police of Nagpur managed to detect just 229 (28.87 per cent) cyber crimes in the last seven years as against reported 793 offences. A total of 159 cyber crooks were held by the police from 2016 to September 2021.
