Cuttack: Frequent incidents of cyber crime have become a cause of concern in the state with police and the Crime Branch finding themselves at their wits’ end to check the menace.
With the advent of internet facility and smartphone, people are now opting for online transactions. Besides, use of social media like Facebook has also become a popular practice among the masses.
Taking advantage of the online transactions, many unscrupulous elements are cheating people financially. Incidents like ATM fraud and online looting of money have become the order of the day, said a few experts.
Apart from that, some people are opening fake social media accounts and uploading obscene photos and videos to malign women and girls. There were also several reports regarding the hacking of websites of many government and non-government agencies in state.
Taking the issue seriously, the state government had set up a cyber police station at the Crime Branch headquarters here in 2014. Subsequently, three more cyber police stations were established in Rourkela, Berhampur and Sambalpur to curb online cheating and other crimes.
Recently, the state government has opened two more cyber police stations in Berhampur and Rourkela to deal with the menace.
“The Odisha police has organised several workshops to train security personnel for tackling cybercrimes. Moreover, it has issued several guidelines to people to keep their bank accounts and social media profiles away from online fraudsters. However, all these efforts have failed to produce the desired result,” said an expert.
Sources claimed that as many as 100 cases have been filed in cyber police stations in the state during last five months. However, police are yet to take action against the accused in at least 50 per cent of the cases, sources added.
“Sometimes residents of some neighbouring states are committing cyber crimes. So, it is very difficult to take action against the accused in such cases,” said a police officer on condition of anonymity.
Crime Branch SP RB Panigrahi said they are trying their best to take action against people involved in cyber crimes.
