Innovative MO by cyber operatives leave no one safe Premium

From job scams to identity theft and sextortion, cyber criminals are getting more audacious and coming up with creative tactics to cheat people and outsmart police

Visakhapatnam, often referred to as the ‘City of Destiny’, is no stranger to cyber crime. In fact, it is leading the charts in terms of online offences in Andhra Pradesh, Commissioner of Police Ch.Srikanth had disclosed at a national seminar last June. 

The city had its first tryst with crime on the web when an Intermediate student fell into the trap of an online friendship club. After spending over ₹1 lakh, drawn from his father’s bank account, he realised that the girl on the other side of the screen was fake. Conned and helpless, he ended his life.

The incident took place about 15 years ago and and it was then that the police were introduced to the world of cyber crime. It took about six months to detect the perpetrators, who were arrested from New Delhi.

Ever since, cyber crime has grown at a phenomenal pace and beyond the imagination of the law enforcement agencies. More often than not, the fraudsters are at least a few paces ahead of the police and the men in khaki have a tough time controlling the sinister designs.

If the police bust one modus operandi, newer and more refined methods of swindling people emerge. And the victim is not always your average Joe, who is tech-challenged. Today, even highly educated people are ensnared into the world of cyber crime. In fact, the pandemic period saw an upsurge in online offences when most people were working from home and spent a substantial part of their day on the computer. 

Recently, a software engineer working for a reputed MNC from home in Visakhapatnam, browsed through search engines, looking for part-time jobs.

With everything on the internet now linked to artificial intelligence, the moment one visits a site, their search data is smuggled and they become sitting ducks for criminals scouring the web to target people with tailored messages, said Commissioner of Police, Visakhapatnam, Ch. Srikanth.