State cyber police urges parents, women to be alert against cyber frauds

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Advisories issued for cyber safety measures due to surge in cyber crimes during lockdown, says police

Mumbai: The cyber cell of Maharashtra police has issued an advisory to parents to keep an eye on chat boxes and sites browsed by their children. It has also urged parents of kids in the 7-18 year age-groups to be on alert to check if their children were victims of cyber frauds or some pornographic racket. It also asked parents to not share their confidential PIN numbers with children.  This advisory was issued following a rise in child pornographic content online.

Women netizens were also asked to take precautions online especially while browsing matrimonial websites. The cyber police urged women to not upload personal details with their matrimonial profiles and suggested that they share contact phone numbers of elders in family rather than their own.

Stating that online predators were on the prowl for elderly estranged women looking for second marriages, the cyber police urged women to not fall prey to claims of prospective grooms based abroad and instead verify their background and even insist on providing a relative’s reference. The matrimonial portals were also warned to verify foreign applicants by insisting on their passport details, reminding the online platforms that they could also be liable under the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 in case of a fraud.

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The police said that women should avoid getting into financial transactions with friends made online and even avoid transferring funds to them. Women’s cyber safety has registered a sharp rise especially during lockdown. Speaking to thenews21, Special Inspector General of Maharashtra (Cyber) Yashasvi Yadav said: “Though we have no separate statistics on cybercrimes against women, we are currently investigating over 2500 cases under a whole gamut of online cyber fraud cases.

This advisory was issued as a precautionary measure as a warning since there is a general rise in cybercrimes during lockdown.” Maharashtra police’s cyber cell has registered 554 cases and arrested 288 persons for various cybercrime cases during lockdown. These include uploading or sharing of hateful or objectionable content on WhatsApp (208 cases), Facebook posts (236 cases), making hateful TikTok videos (28 cases), objectionable tweets (18 posts), posting objectionable content on Instagram (4 cases) and 60 other cases of uploading hateful audio and video content on other social media platforms.

The state cyber police also deleted about 118 hateful posts till July 19. Cybercrimes against women generally relate to cases of cyber stalking, morphing photographs, uploading fake profiles, trolling, body shaming and even uploading pornographic content, according to Sonali Patankar of Responsible Netism that works to create awareness on online safety. The Maharashtra government on July 21 kicked off an initiative to train 5000 college students in the age-group of 16-25 years on digital safety measures. Cybercrimes can be reported at local police stations or on cybercrime.gov.in.