UP second on cybercrime chart with 8,829 cases

Uttar Pradesh is second only to Telangana (10,303 cases) in terms of the number of cybercrime incidents, recording 8,829 cases in 2021, of which 6,833 are pending. As many as 1,067 such cases have been reported in Lucknow during the same period, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

Subhash Chander, ADG, cybercrime, said 90% of such cases in UP originate from states like West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Mewar region of India.

According to the UP Police cybercrime department, the cases are very diverse in nature. Among these are cyber thugs duping power consumers via ‘fake pending electricity bill’ messages.

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Recently, an elderly woman lost savings of ₹12 lakh when she clicked a link in a similar fake text message. The victim, Asha Pratap, 80, of Noida who lives alone, received a fake message on September 2022 and a call from a man posing as an electricity department employee who asked her to pay the electricity bill online or face a power cut.

“Lacking awareness, she clicked on the link and lost ₹12 lakh, which she never got back because she lodged her complaint very late,” said Asha Pratap’s brother AK Mathur from Lucknow.

Despite filing a cybercrime complaint, another victim, Akshay Singh of Rae Bareli Road, Lucknow, did not get a refund of ₹4,500, which he lost in a similar ‘fake electricity bill’ scam.

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“The incident happened after I called on the number and then followed the procedures asked by the perpetrator. The amount of ₹4,500 money was debited through two transactions within an hour,” he claimed.

MODUS OPERANDI

Sharing the modus operandi of cyber frauds, Chander said in the ‘electricity bill payment’ scam, the criminals usually target victims via two methods.

Through a text message, users are informed that the electricity bill for the previous month is due and that the power supply will be snapped at night. The message is from a 10-digit mobile number, claiming to be from the power team, which further asks the consumer to call to facilitate bill payment.

“However, the number belongs to cyber frauds. When a user calls on that number, they are duped into downloading remote access apps, including ‘Anydesk’ or ‘Teamviewer’, which makes a clone of the mobile phone, allowing the cyber thug to operate/access the victim’s mobile phone from any location,” he added.

“In the name of penalty, they persuade the victim to pay a smaller amount of ₹1, 10 or 11, which further helps them to know the user ID and password of the victim and they later withdraw a big amount from the bank account,” said the ADG.

In the second method, instead of a mobile number, the criminals use a link that leads to a phishing website. When a user attempts to make a payment transaction on the following website, all details, including a debit/credit card number, user ID and password, and so on, are retrieved by them which they then use to withdraw money later.