Bengaluru police staff stretched thin by soaring cybercrime cases

Bengaluru: A lower staff-to-cases ratio, delayed response from banks, interstate and, in some cases, international suspects and late reporting of cases are some of the aspects plaguing cybercrime investigations in Bengaluru, senior police officers say.

As per the city police data, of the 17,623 cybercrimes registered last year, only 1,271 were detected. Most cases were reported in the North division (3,260), followed by Southeast (2,674), Whitefield (2,562), South (2,094) and East (1,994), the data released Wednesday showed.

“The number of cases is so huge that the resources are not enough to address all of them,” a senior cybercrime investigator, requesting anonymity, told DH.

“One Cyber Economic and Narcotics Crime (CEN) police station has a thousand cases on average, with one police inspector and nearly 30-40 staff,” the investigator said.

The officer said that in several cases, they found the proceeds of the crime were being transferred to mule or leased bank accounts and the person who owns it had no idea who used it or for what purpose.

“Some of the fraudsters are in villages in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand where the local police don’t enter without enough force. It is very difficult to go and operate there. It depends on how local police respond and how much influence they have in those villages. We identify a lot of accused but going there and securing them with local police’s help is a difficult task,” the officer added.

The officer also added that most cases were instances of cheating and not cyber offences and the Information Technology (IT) Act gets added because money is transferred online.

“Real cyber offences are hacking, phishing, malware attacks, ransomware etc,” the officer said.

Agreeing that the increased cases do overburden the staff, Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda said that special investigation teams have been formed to probe the cybercrimes divided into four main categories — FedEx courier fraud, Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) fraud, sextortion and online job fraud — to reduce the workload.

“The teams are headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP)-level officer and are making good progress,” Dayananda told DH.

“We are also trying to merge the cases as the probe will be similar once the modus operandi is known.”

Delays in response and refusal to share the details by the banks were another reason two cybercrime investigators the DH spoke with highlighted.

“Regular monthly meetings are held with nodal officers of the banks to make sure that there is coordination and synergy between the police and the bank authorities,” the commissioner said.

“We are focusing on capacity building and training the police staff in probing cybercrimes. We are also equipping them with the required tools and technologies to collect the evidence and detect the crimes.”

Mitigation efforts

Formation of special investigation teams for cybercrimes, divided into four categories like FedEx courier fraud, Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) fraud, sextortion, and online job fraud.

Monthly meetings with bank nodal officers to improve coordination.

Focus on capacity building and training for police staff.

Use of advanced tools and technologies for evidence collection and crime detection.