Another frequent class of cybercrime being reported within the metropolis is courier fraud or Fedex fraud (250 instances) the place victims are led to imagine that they’ve been despatched a suspicious parcel and are pressured to pay enormous quantities to keep away from police trouble or authorized proceedings.

The different frequent types of cybercrime are sextortion (115 instances) and on-line job fraud instances (4,607 instances).

“In recent times, a number of cybercrimes, particularly the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System frauds, the Fedex courier frauds, WhatsApp sextortion videos and online job frauds, are being reported and it has been decided to prioritise the investigation of these cases. Four DCP rank officers will head four special teams to probe these cases,” Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda mentioned Friday.

DCP North-East will head the staff investigating the AEPS frauds, DCP Traffic East will head the staff to probe the Fedex courier frauds, DCP Traffic North will supervise the probes into instances of sextortion and DCP Traffic South will supervise a staff investigation on-line job frauds, the police commissioner mentioned.

“The designated DCPs must ensure that the cybercrimes in their supervision are probed properly and coordinate with the nodal officers in the banks and the central government’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to hunt down cyber criminals and recover funds lost by victims,” Dayananda mentioned.

In Bengaluru, 10,555 cybercrime instances have been registered in 2019 and the police managed to unravel 2,059 of them (19 per cent). In 2020, 8,892 cybercrime instances have been registered of which 3,001 have been solved (30 per cent). In 2021, 6,423 instances have been registered and 1,902 instances have been solved (29 per cent) and in 2022, over 10,000 instances have been registered however the police are but to reveal what number of have been solved.

Cybercrimes make up 80 per cent of all instances within the metropolis. So, right here’s a fast take a look at the 4 classes of cybercrimes in Bengaluru.

Aadhaar-enabled Payment Services instances in Bengaluru

In late October, the Bengaluru police arrested two individuals from Bihar who have been concerned in fraudulent withdrawal of cash utilizing Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS).

The Bengaluru North East Cyber Crime, Economic Offences and Narcotics Police arrested the 2 individuals in reference to two instances of fraud. Complainants had alleged that cash was withdrawn from their accounts with out their information.

According to the police, the accused downloaded property paperwork from the Kaveri portal — a web-based software of the Department of Stamps and Registration of the Karnataka authorities. From these paperwork, the accused acquired Aadhaar card particulars and cast the fingerprints of the victims to withdraw cash utilizing AePS.

Over the previous six months, a number of individuals who had registered their properties had filed complaints that cash was withdrawn from their accounts, days or in some instances, weeks after the registration.

Fedex courier rip-off

A cyber fraud involving pretend policemen, who impersonate officers of the CBI, narcotics bureau and the anti terrorism squad of the Maharashtra Police to focus on gullible individuals, make their victims imagine that they’re trapped in an internet of crime involving pretend parcels (containing medicine or equipment of terror crimes). This has led to the dishonest of a number of lakhs of rupees from individuals in Bengaluru.

The courier rip-off (on account of the fraud involving claims of the presence of a Fedex or different parcels), which has been round for some time, has been traced to gangs working out of distant places in India.

On June 23, 2023, a PhD pupil on the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru filed a police criticism over the lack of Rs 1,34,650 to the courier rip-off. The 30-year-old acquired a name from an individual impersonating a Fedex worker who mentioned a package deal had arrived in her identify containing unlawful gadgets and {that a} case of identification theft had occurred.

“They impersonated a Mumbai Narcotics Division officer and threatened me of filing a case for illegally supplying MDMA. Extremely scared and panicked, I transferred the money. I kindly request you to take legal action and freeze the transactions,” she instructed the Bengaluru central division police in her criticism.

Nithin Kamath, the founder and CEO of the Bengaluru-headquartered monetary companies agency Zerodha, additionally reported on social media on June 23, 2023, the prevalence of the courier rip-off.

“There’s a new scam in the name of FedEx, Blue Dart, and other courier companies that you need to be aware of. A colleague got a call from a person claiming to be from FedEx saying that a parcel had been confiscated by the police because drugs were found in it,” Kamath mentioned on his social media account.

Sextortion

In 2021, the demise of a 26-year-old MBA graduate who was a sufferer of a web based blackmail and extortion racket put the highlight on the menace of “sextortion” by organised gangs utilizing social media accounts of their victims.

The “sextortion” case that led to the alleged suicide of the MBA graduate is amongst a collection of instances throughout the nation involving organised gangs which might be focusing on individuals via their social media accounts.

The probe into the suicide case and a CID cybercrime probe right into a sextortion case of a businessman in 2021 led the police to 4 individuals from the Bharatpur area of Rajasthan who have been allegedly working a full fledged on-line extortion racket utilizing pretend identities.

Online job fraud

In October this 12 months, a software program skilled in Bengaluru reported the lack of over Rs 50 lakh in a web based job cum funding rip-off.

The techie, Darshan S, has reported the lack of Rs 50.53 lakh in a case filed with the Bengaluru cybercrime police the place he acknowledged that he was lured into finishing up duties and was supplied enormous returns on funds. He has alleged that he was lulled into believing the scheme after seeing returns in his account on preliminary investments.

An investigation into an identical case earlier this 12 months by the cybercrime police revealed a community of 84 financial institution accounts via which fraudulently acquired funds moved. The probe revealed that as a lot as Rs 854 crore moved via these financial institution accounts.

When the police seemed for the financial institution accounts linked to the cybercrime in Bengaluru on the National Cyber Crime Portal (which is linked to the 1930 cyber nationwide helpline), they discovered there have been 5,013 instances throughout India the place the identical set of financial institution accounts had been utilized by cyber criminals to funnel funds swindled from victims.

An analogous case had unravelled in Hyderabad in July this 12 months the place the Hyderabad cybercrime police revealed that 15,000 victims have been cheated of Rs 712 crore via 113 financial institution accounts created for pretend corporations as part of a fraud by a gaggle of native operatives discovered to be linked to Dubai-based operators having China hyperlinks.