Odisha Registers 31% Rise In Cybercrime In 2020

Bhubaneswar: What may come as a warning for online users, the cybercrime cases in Odisha made an alarming jump of 31% from 1475 cases in 2019 to 1931 cases in 2020.

According to police sources, most of the fraud cases were related to transactions made through net banking, debit cards, credit cards and UPI during lockdown imposed due to COVID-19 pandemic. As shops and business establishments remained closed due to the lockdown, the number of online transactions went up during the period.

“Restrictions on movement of people, apprehension of infection of virus through cash transactions and availability of commodities on the online platforms exposed the people to online frauds,” TOI reported a police officer saying.

Following the rise in online frauds, Odisha Police has focused on ‘golden hour’ of the crime in the investigation. The personnel were asked to effectively use the time between the occurrence of the crime and response after registration of the case, which it called the ‘golden hour’.

The police plan to provide online course offered by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The NCRB has 18 courses in six fields. Besides, the state police department has taken the help of the National Police Academy (NPA) in Hyderabad to train its personnel on the online frauds and their investigation.