Cyber crime: victims don’t know whom to call

What do you do in case you come across a cyber crime?

Well, 79% of the educated Mumbai residents do not have an answer, as was found out during a survey conducted by a team of experts from the KPMG Advisory Services.

The survey was conducted by speaking to Mumbaikars and contacting them through email. 

The results of the survey were released at a round table conference held on Tuesday at the Indian Merchants’ Chamber. The conference was part of the Cyber Safety Week organised by Mumbai police.

Former director general of police KK Kashyap, commissioner of police D Sivanandhan, IT expert Vijay Mukhi, KPMG executive director Nitin Khanapurkar, advertising guru Bharat Dabholkar, senior police officers and IT experts attended the conference.

A total of 20 questions were asked to computer users.  The results also revealed that 96% of people did not know whether they have ever been victims of a cyber attack or online fraud.

“There is a huge amount of under reporting in cases of cyber crime; people who have been victims do not register complaints fearing that it would make them objects of ridicule or their reputation might get damaged,” IPS officer Pratap Reddy from Karnataka said.

“With the advent of social networking sites, people, including celebrities and VVIPs post scraps and messages about their activities. This can easily reveal their location and plans and they may become targets of criminals. People need to be educated about using the internet and about how to behave online.”

According to Sivanadhan, people can contact police stations or the cyber crime cell. “Also, complaints can be posted on our website www.copconnect.com. Other than cheating, frauds and data thefts, cyber terrorism too is a problem. The cyber machinery has been used in the past by terror groups and they could use it to plan their operations and get information about people,” he said.

Another fact revealed in the survey is that 62% of Mumbaikars do not monitor their children’s activities on the internet. Children could misuse the internet and could become targets of cyber criminals easily.

“If a time table to play and study timings can be set, it can also be done for surfing the internet for children. Parents should always keep a check on their children’s activities on the internet or else they could suffer from things like cyber bullying, cyber harassment and they could also be lured to get involved in cyber crimes,” said Mukhi.