Concerned by the rapidly growing incidents of cybercrimes where a vast majority of the vulnerable citizens are susceptible of being defrauded, the local CR Park Police, led by its SHO
Mr Ritesh Kumar, has launched a massive citizen’s awareness drive against cyber offenses. Our Resident Editor Manoj Kumar met up with Mr Ritesh Kumar to gain an insight about the roadmap of this initiative. The SHO also provided some tips for the residents to stay protected from cybercrime. We provide below an excerpt of this interaction.
Q. What is the goal of this Program and how will it be effective?
A. As they say, forewarned is forearmed. We feel prevention is better than cure. The goal of this program is therefore to create awareness about cyber frauds and cyber security. In fact, greater awareness of technology has helped us in solving cybercrimes by piecing together the chain of fraudulent financial transactions that the offenders undertake during and after the crime. For this, it is necessary for the victims to report the crime without any delay.
Q. Is this part of an initiative undertaken by Delhi Police to curb cybercrime?
A. This is a local initiative undertaken by CR Park Police Station with a view to spread awareness among the citizens about cybercrime.
Q. What would be some of the crucial tips that you would like to provide to our readers on protecting them from cybercrime?
A. In this age of technology and social media, our lives are no longer private. Almost all information about us is available in the public domain. Not just this, even couriers and food delivery personnel have our contact particulars. We should be careful about the details and the kind of information that we post on our social media so that it cannot be easily accessed by fraudsters. Even small little actions like removing our address stickers from the courier delivery boxes and online ordered food packets before discarding them go a long way in protecting us against cybercrime. Google is among the largest repository of your personal data as it remains activated on your mobile devices. Take out time to keep deleting any unwanted data by visiting takeout.google.com. Some of the tricks used by criminals to commit cybercrime include,
Sending synthetic Video, images, audio, text, document Setting up fake ATM that will collect your Card PIN without disbursing cash Putting fake website on search engines that closely resemble the genuine websites and using them for phishing purposes Making fake claims about calling from banks for obtaining sensitive data Luring you into parting data about your bank accounts through fake lottery wins, Inheritance etc
Creating panic of card or account blocking to make you part with data that would enable them to hack into your account Instilling false fear about injury or hospitalization of your near and dear ones Cloning RFID Tags and Car key Fobs People should never fall prey to any of these antics Apart from this, some of the other measures that an alert citizen should take are, Keep deleting unnecessary data from your computer and mobiles. It should be remembered that even the deleted data can be retrieved by unscrupulous elements unless it is permanently deleted Never create a piece of Electronic data, including Video, Audio or Text, which you do not want to retain Do a factory reset of your phone when exchanging your mobile phone with a new one Beware of UPI frauds and avoid sharing the PIN/CVV of your Cards with anyone
Avoid using phone chargers that are available at public places like airports, shopping malls etc as these could carry malware. Similarly, avoid using complimentary pen drives Do not use free Wi fi for accessing sensitive websites like your net banking Lock your Aadhar bio metric to prevent its misuse never install any app from link sent by strangers The era of technology has brought its own set of challenges and one must learn to adapt to technology using a cautious approach.
