Unassuming citizens fall for ‘like and share’ scam
‘Like and share’ scam is engineered by cybercriminals to dupe citizens unversed in the ways of cyber space,says cybercrime cell officials
PUNE The next time you receive a link urging you to ‘like and share’ the attached video/s with the promise of payment (usually Rs50 to Rs100) per ‘task’ as it is called, steer clear… for this is just another scam engineered by cybercriminals to dupe citizens unversed in the ways of cyber space.
The links are sent by registered companies and lure recipients into ‘liking and sharing’ the attached video/s in return for a small sum. The bank details of the recipients are sought and the small sums are duly transferred to their accounts with every subsequent ‘like and share’ aka ‘task’. The recipients are fooled into thinking that they can earn thousands or lakhs of rupees just by clicking from their digital devices. Among those falling prey to this scam are the elderly who are mostly retired, children, and the uneducated. Surprisingly, several educated people are also among the victims.
Head of the cybercrime cell, DCP Shriniwas Ghadge, said, “This is the kind of scam that is feeding off the absence of cyber literacy among people and also their greed.”
“Such crimes are not new to the cyber world; they have been around for the last 10 to 15 years,” DCP Ghadge said.
Police sub-inspector Vidya Sable said, “The cybercrime branch has recently constituted local cyber branches within local police stations in various areas so that crimes can be reported at every level and as soon as possible. Before this, there were more than 15,000 cases which came to us within a year.”
“Not only uneducated people but even educated people are falling victim to such crimes. There are people who are already earning in lakhs in their weekday jobs but are still succumbing to such schemes for their weekend earnings,” PSI Sable said.
The scams devised by cybercriminals do not stop at ‘like and share’ but go well beyond. Scammers are found targeting the accounts of the aged or those who have no cyber knowledge wherein links are sent along with text messages. Just by clicking on these links, the personal data of these individuals gets compromised and they are left clueless as to what is happening to them. Fake loan- and mortgage- applications are found luring people with easy loans and mortgages only to dupe them. The victims have no way of tracking the cybercriminals in most of these cases.
PSI Sable said, “The cyber cell tracks and hunts down these scamsters as much as possible, but they use devices which are not traceable. Their phone signals bounce from one state to another, making it difficult for us to pinpoint their location.”
Superintendent of police Minal Patil of the cyber police station, said, “These crimes do not have a very strict punishment, just three years of imprisonment, which is not enough. We impose sections 420 and 419 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with section 66D of the Information Technology (IT) Act so that the scamsters get stricter punishment. However, amendments to the IT Act are the need of the hour, at least for the sake of the people, else such companies will keep seeking out desperate people”.
“Today itself, we have already recorded two to three cases and the economic value of these frauds ranges from thousands to over a crore,” SP Patil said.
Asked about possible solutions to cybercrime, SP Patil said, “Firstly, more power should be given to the police and there should be major amendments regarding punishment within the IT Act. We should be allowed to make the case under sections of the IPC to strengthen punishments. There should be cyber awareness among the people. Children, youngsters, elders, the educated and the uneducated, should all be aware of social media and online platforms.”
“The cybercrime cell makes it a point to spread as much awareness as possible in schools, colleges and societies. We even have a Rotary Club and try to disseminate such information as much as possible,” SP Patil said.
With the march of technology, cybercriminals will only come out with more sophisticated methods of duping people. Hence, necessary action must be taken by the concerned authorities to rein in similar such scams in future.
