The Delhi Police has so far registered 370 First Information Reports (FIRs) against Covid cheats, arrested 91 people, seized 95 devices and frozen more than 200 bank accounts in the national Capital.
According to data shared by police, they have registered 372 cases and frozen 214 bank accounts within cheated amount of Rs 53.60 lakh.
Police said they have adopted a two-pronged strategy. In the first one, the citizens are being facilitated for easy lodging of complaints at helpline and portal and the second is proactively instantly started taking actions to dismantle the ecosystem of Covid frauds.
There was a sudden and substantial change in the nature of distress calls being received. Covid cheats becoming most important amongst all others within a day or two. Delhi police overnight augmented the capacities of its Covid helpline 011-23469900 for reporting Covid cheat cases, police said.
Simultaneously, awareness campaigns requesting citizens to lodge cyber fraud instances on www.cybercrime.gov.in and use the Delhi special pilot cyber financial fraud helpline 155260 and www.acpcybercell1.delhipolice.gov.in was initiated, police said.
“All the district cyber cells and cybercrime unit of the Crime Branch joined hands with CyPAD and a system of generation of 12 hourly situation reports on complaints and FIR was established,” said a senior police official.
Continuous analysis of registered cases and complaints indicated that while a majority of suspect SIM cards were subscribed and sourced from one state, the SIM cards were being used in another state, he said.
Moreover, the beneficiary accounts where these SIM users were receiving cheated money were scattered all over the country -- states like West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka -- appeared as being highly affected by the presence of this cybercriminal network, police said.
The Director Generals of Police of concerned states were contacted by Delhi Police Commissioner for coordinated effort to wipe out Covid cheats and strong teams from Crime, CyPAD and districts were sent to locate and dismantle the infrastructure of Covid cheaters, they said.
CyPAD, being the focal unit, reached out to Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C)/MHA and through it, to the National Banking and Financial Sector and the Regulators of Telecom Industry apart from leading private players and operators.
By May 1, as the Covid cheat was peaking, CyPAD was sending 12 hourly alerts to I4C and its joint cyber-crime investigation platforms of Mewat, Jamtara, Ahmadabad, Chandigarh and Hyderabad, Department of Telecommunications and banking sector with specific, actionable information to get the beneficiary accounts frozen, the cheater’s SIM cards suspended pending KYC re-verification and related IMEIs black-listed, police said.
The citizens were advised to follow safety tips during online transactions. The peak started to show a rapid decline and the daily reporting of cases has now reduced with the coordinated police action, police said.
“We were taking cognizance on one hand and acted on the criminals and their ecosystem and successfully curbed the rising trends of Covid cheats. There are 20 teams in action on ground in several states; a substantial number of arrests are likely in the coming few days, the police official said.
