Israeli Tools Come Handy to Freeze Accounts

Hyderabad: Recently procured Israeli and German tools came to the aid of the city cybercrime unit (CCU) or freeze cyberfraudsters’ accounts, and return money to the victims.

The police refunded or froze more than Rs.46 crore from January till date as against Rs.19.9 crore in 2023.

In keeping with the massive rise in cybercrimes, the CCU has been reinforced with advanced multipurpose software tools for use in prevention, detection and tracking servers of fraudsters not only in India but abroad too. They freeze the amount that has been swindled and return it to victims in 15 to 20 days after getting the go-ahead from courts.

As per CCU records, 2,998 cyber crimes have been reported this year, as against 2,336 in 2023. The lost amount this year till date is Rs.231.88 crore while it was Rs.147.22 crore in 2023.

The CCU teams detected 301 cyberfraud cases this year (286 in 2023) and arrested 346 persons in the last 10 months as against 413 in all of last 2023. However, the refund and freezing process was reportedly affected due to lack of modern and sophisticated tools.

The recently procured most advanced gadgets and tools were helping the police crack the whip on cyberfraudsters, said police commissioner C.V. Anand.

To tackle cybercrimes, the Centre has established the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). The government has also launched the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in) to enable public reporting of cybercrimes.

“Our CCU forensic laboratory investigation teams are now able to provide early-stage cyber forensic assistance to investigating officers," Anand said.

“Instructions have been issued to start awareness programs in theatres, by popular Youtubers, celebrities and audio and video displays in over 44 identified public places, CCU ACP R.G. Siva Maruthi said.