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Fighting cyber crimes

Conviction in a cyber case in Pathanamthitta recently has increased the confidence of the public to file more such cases, writes Anand Haridas

After a couple of arrests of foreign nationals on charges of cheating people through e-mails, more people are coming forward to file complaints, say city police officials. The police were complaining that they could not initiate action on these crimes, as not many were reporting, if at all they were cheated. Majority of these `spam mails' were ignored.

Following successful completion of recent cases, people have started reacting to spamming.

"We could follow-up these cases effectively, unlike in the past. Even though foreign nationals were involved in these cases, we could bring them to justice just like any other criminal," said K. Padmakumar, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ernakulam Range.

Last week, the Ernakulam Town North Police had arrested a South African national for trying to cheat a person using the Internet. The son of an Internet Café owner in Chittoor Road received an e-mail saying that he won a lottery worth Rs.5 lakh dollars and that an agent would come to collect some money that had to be paid in advance for releasing the lottery. Freddy Bolaji Suberu of South Africa was arrested when he approached the victim posing as the agent.

The police arrested Joswo Moses, a Togo national, last month for trying to cheat through fake e-mail soliciting the victim's help to legalise `black money' belonging to a former Liberian president.

In both cases, the police were alerted by those who received the mails and laid traps for the accused. "There has been a significant shift in the manner in which cases are treated under the IT Act," said P. Vijayan, City Police Commissioner.

Conviction in a cyber case in Pathanamthitta recently and increased awareness among the police along with the revamping of the Cyber Police Station have increased the confidence level among the public.

"After these developments, we could provide speedy and timely response to complaints on cyber crimes. This has resulted in people volunteering to set up traps for these criminals," said Mr. Vijayan.

However, a senior police official in the city police said the people were still reluctant to register cyber cases. "We have been urging the public to file cases through all possible media, but there was no significant increase in the number of crimes being reported," he said.

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