Need to train more police officials to prevent cyber crimes: Mumbai top cop

Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar on Wednesday said there was an urgent need to train as many police officials as possible to investigate and prevent cyber crimes reported news agency PTIMumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar was speaking at a training workshop organised for Mumbai Polices Cyber CommandosOn the occasion the police introduced Cyber Commandos trained for prevention and detection of cases related to cyber crime and also unveiled a poster of helpline 1930Addressing the officials who underwent training Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar in the last two years there has been an increase in cyber frauds and cases of sextortion identity theft phishing and cheating reported PTISuch cases lead to both financial and reputational damage he saidConsidering the threat of crime in the cyber space every head constable working at a police station has to be computer and digital literate said the senior IPS officerIn the next phase the Mumbai Police will train station house officers and other policemen on cyber crime investigation he said reported PTIWe have tied up with SBI which has 95 lakh customer base in Mumbai The tieup has helped us reach 50 per cent of Mumbai he said adding creating awareness about crime among citizens is also one of the tasks of police reported PTISpecial Police Commissioner Deven Bharti said with the cyber helpline 1930 the Mumbai Police have frozen transactions of over Rs 25 crore which people had lost to online fraudsters reported PTIConsidering the increase in cyber crimes police officials should upgrade their investigative kills through training he said reported PTIMeanwhile a 37yearold man from Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra has allegedly lost Rs 1013 lakh after being lured with the promise of high returns for some online tasks police said on Sunday reported PTIThe cyber police station in Navi Mumbai has registered a case against four persons in this connection they saidThe accused contacted the victim a resident of Old Panvel area between January 16 and 27 and offered him to undertake some online prepaid tasks reported PTIThey forwarded him certain links assigned the tasks and promised lucrative returns Subsequently the victim made payments totalling Rs 1013005 into the bank accounts and through UPI IDs as instructed an official from cyber police station said reported PTIHowever after completing the tasks the victim neither received the promised returns nor his money was refunded When he asked the accused for payment they gave evasive responses reported PTIThe victim then filed a police complaint based on which a case was on Wednesday registered against four persons under sections 419 cheating by personation 420 cheating and 34 common intention of the Indian Penal Code the official saidWith inputs from PTI