Pune: While the city police are yet to launch a dedicated cyber police station, the Pune rural police has started its dedicated cyber police station and are filing first information reports (FIRs) related to cyber crimes.
The facility took off in the first week of July. It helps citizens to lodge complaints and FIRs on cyber crime. It is located at Pune rural police headquarters in Pashan.
Assistant Police Inspector (API) Mahesh Chavan, in-charge of the cyber police station, said that to tackle cyber crimes, the government has stressed on the need for cyber police stations and so Superintendent of Police (Rural) Suvez Haque gave the green signal for the cyber police station.
“Earlier we had a cyber cell, but we would route the complainant to the police station having jurisdiction to file the complaint, but now we accept the complaint and lodge an FIR here,” he said.
Pune Rural police said that in the first five months of this year, 25 FIRs on cyber crimes were filed at police stations under the jurisdiction of the the rural police.
Awareness needed
Chavan said awareness about cyber crimes is an important solution to tackle cyber crimes.
“Consider a person getting cheated in debit card fraud. The moment he realises that he has been cheated, he should call up the bank to freeze his transaction and stop the payment. Similarly, in some cases, we have observed that fraudsters route stolen money through mobile wallets. In such cases people must inform the police about it immediately and then we can freeze that mobile wallet to stop transactions and save the money of the victim,” added Chavan.
The rural police are planning to display flex boards to spread awareness of cyber crimes all around. The police have advised people to follow instructions given by banks to protect themselves from debit card fraud.
Social media fraud
Chavan said WhatsApp and Facebook hacking is a trend across Maharashtra. “Whenever you want to start your WhatsApp on a different phone number you are asked to send a one-time password for verification which you have received on your previous number. The fraudster asks you about the OTP and your WhatsApp is no more functional. Now the fraudster will start sending messages to your friends that he is in urgent need of money and ask them to transfer it through mobile wallet, thereby cheating your friends. When it comes to Facebook hacking, many people keep mobile number or easy password which fraudsters can use and hack a Facebook account,” added Chavan.
The rural police said social media are used to send obscene messages and pictures to girls which is a crime. “Many people think they will not be caught but we do arrest these people and send them to jail,” added Chavan.
