BackCybercrime is an emerging worry with wide reach
Data can be leaked from any government office or from wherever your KYC (know your customer) has been filed.
PremiumHe retired from a senior post in a paramilitary force and currently resides in a Delhi suburb. Throughout his life, he fought the country’s adversaries and received numerous honours. But he now has a regret—cyber criminals have handed him a defeat at this age that Naxalites and separatists could not do.
He was woken up one night by a phonecall from a woman. That was the first of many such calls. One day the woman asked for a video call. The day after that call, he received indecent photographs and videos with his face superimposed on them. Money was sought in exchange for not making the material public. He initially obliged, but the demands from crooks kept rising. He got fed up and filed a case with the cyber cell. The police are still investigating this sextortion case.
You might also receive calls or SMS-es from banks or other institutions on a regular basis. They continually remind people to avoid “fraud calls" and not to give out confidential information to anyone. Those who disregard these warnings face serious consequences. The intriguing part is that you can become a victim of these folks even if you do nothing. This happened to me a few months ago. Someone faked my Facebook profile and requested money over Facebook Messenger. Many fell into this trap and paid as much as ₹5,000. I filed a complaint with the Uttar Pradesh police and the probe has been going on for months.
This is not a one-off occurrence. Messages began to appear on my phone two years ago stating that on my request such-and-such number had been activated. I became concerned as their numbers grew. Who was having so many SIM cards “activated" in my name? I reported it to the police. Their investigation revealed that a SIM cards merchant from Bihar had obtained my phone number from somewhere and was saving this number as an alternative number for activation. What if he did so unwittingly while selling the SIM card to a terrorist or criminal? I was able to get rid of this bully, thanks to the police, but there is no reprieve.
Even now, notifications keep coming from what appear to be numbers of banks stating that a large sum of money had been deposited in or withdrawn from my account. The average citizen can no longer file a complaint with the police on a daily basis. Even if you try, you will not be able to escape this trap.
You must be wondering who gave them your phone number when you receive calls or messages from fraudsters. Forgery can occur from any place. Data can be leaked from any government office or from wherever your KYC (know your customer) has been filed. Last month, Cyberabad police nabbed a Faridabad man for hacking and selling sensitive data of 669 million people across 24 states and eight metros.
He took information from businesses such as Byju’s, Vedantu, Amazon Netflix, Paytm, YouTube, PhonePe, Instagram, Zomato and Policy Bazaar. He also took information on 450,000 salaried staff and around 200,000 cab clients.
They are striking it rich without investing a single penny. Every day, thousands of people enter the field of cyber fraud, because all that is required as capital is a smartphone. Gangs of such people have thrived in village after village and area after area. Previously, Jharkhand’s Jamtara was supposedly notorious; currently, it is present across all states, and swarms of such crooks are busy looting people.
Nuh district in Haryana is the latest example. Around 5,000 Haryana Police personnel stormed villages in the district last month, and arrested 65 suspects from 14 cybercrime hubs. In the past, there used to be a realm of thugs and pindaries in India. There were also professional criminal tribes in the past. Dacoits used to rule the Yamuna and Chambal ravines a few decades ago. The colonies of cyber thugs are now settling at the same rate.
The story does not end here. Listen to a Belgian citizen’s story. He was concerned about the civic environment and began learning about it through Eliza, an AI chatbot. He became so absorbed in it that he isolated himself from society and even stopped speaking to his wife. The only buddy left was the chatbot. The outcome was disastrous. He committed suicide after only six weeks.
A cloud hangs over the digital revolution. Regrettably, no law or preventive action has helped avert such cases thus far. The lesson is clear: You must always remain alert and vigilant; but it is not that simple. This problem is the outcome of technology that has been created for our convenience.
Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. Views are personal.
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