How Andhra’s Chittoor became a cybercrime hotspot, district under radar

New Delhi: Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh has achieved a dubious distinction by becoming one of the top cyber crime hotspots in the country.

Chittoor is among three dozen towns and villages in nine states which have become cybercrime hotspots.

From Delhi to Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat to Assam, these towns have become cybercrime hotspots that law enforcement agencies closely monitor.

Several hostile countries have been trying for a long time to cripple India's financial system and national security grid where additional preventive measures are put in place by the government. According to the sources, incidents have come to notice where hackers have targeted VVIPs, and a few state government websites have been used by online fraudsters to dupe people.

The states where the cybercrime hotspots have been located include Haryana, Delhi, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh, sources said.

The emerging cybercrime hotspot cities, towns, and villages are Mewat, Bhiwani, Nuh, Palwal, Manota, Hasanpur, Hathan Gaon (all in Haryana), Ashok Nagar, Uttam Nagar, Shakarpur, Harkesh Nagar, Okhla, Azadpur (all in Delhi), Banka, Begusarai, Jamui, Nawada, Nalanda, Gaya (Bihar), Barpeta, Dhubri, Goalpara, Morigaon, Nagaon (Assam), Jamtara, Deoghar (Jharkhand), Asansol, Durgapur (West Bengal), Ahmedabad, Surat (Gujarat), Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh) and Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh).

Foreign cyber attackers mostly belong to countries like China, Pakistan, and Türkiye, sources said.

20 lakh cyber crime complaints

Union ministry of home affairs Amit Shah said that over 20 lakh cyber crime complaints have been registered on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal. Around 40,000 FIRs have been registered.

He reviewed the cyber security infrastructure of the country and the functioning of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). More than 500 Internet-based applications have been blocked on the recommendation of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).

Given the increasing cyber financial frauds, a helpline number- 1930 has been launched by the Centre. This platform covers over 250 banks and financial intermediaries. The quick reporting system and action of the task force have resulted in the recovery of over Rs 235 crore looted by fraudsters from over 1.33 lakh people so far.

National Database

National database of sexual offenders has been set up, and through this searchable registry, law enforcement agencies can look for offenders involved in sexual offences like rape, molestation, stalking, child abuse, etc. This includes the names, addresses, photographs, and fingerprint details of the offenders. It helps in the identification and verification of sexual offenders to prevent further crimes.

About 99.9 percent of police stations (a total of 16,597 police stations) in the country are registering 100 percent FIRs directly on Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) and the national database so far contains 28.98 crore police records.

"On CCTNS, more than 12.82 crore service requests have been received from citizens, out of which 12.35 crore requests have been disposed of by the state police, said Amit Shah.

Cybercrime Cell

In 2019, Cyber Crimes Cell was launched at the new District Police Office to tackle various forms of online fraud. The cyber cell was started with staff trained in specified areas such as OTP frauds, online shopping frauds and crimes related to posts on social media, job frauds, lucky draws, and lottery frauds.

Earlier in 2022, there were reports of Chittoor district police arresting inter-state gangs involved in cyber crime frauds.

Case studies from Chittoor

-On March 10, 2023, Chittoor district police arrested two persons in connection with a job consultancy fraud. According to Chittoor SP Y Rishanth Reddy, the accused used to lure unemployed youngsters by promising them plum jobs in software firms. During the investigation, it was found that the fraudsters duped several youngsters of around Rs 70 lakh through their scam.

-In January 2023, Kadapa district police arrested a cyber criminal, who is the most wanted in several cases of online lottery fraud. The accused, Sankar Mondal, from West Bengal trapped more than 200 victims across the country. A diploma student with knowledge in computer networks, with the help of his childhood friend Pintu Sardar tracked transactions of several online wallets. They traced the phone numbers from the wallet, and announced that they had won a lottery. The duo had trapped victims and extracted amounts since 2019 using phone numbers and bank account numbers linked to the online wallets.

According to Superintendent of Police K.K.N. Anburajan, the accused used different SIM cards and phones to trap the victims to conceal his location. Through National Cyber Crime Portal, we found 100 petitions raised against the two accused across the country and 44 FIRs filed in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

Inputs from PTI