The latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data has revealed that Bengaluru recorded 762 cyber crimes among metropolitan cities in 2016, second only to Mumbai.
A total of 19 metropolitan cities with population more than 2 million were studied in the report.
While the number of cyber crimes in Bengaluru dropped from 1,042 last year to 762 this year, it still figured among the highest rates of cyber crimes in metropolitan cities. Mumbai with 980 cases topped the list.
The overall number of cyber crime cases in India’s metropolitan cities reduced from 4,561 in 2015 to 4,172 in 2016 but Bengaluru continued to feature among the cities with a high number of cases.
The numbers are expected to increase again next year after Bengaluru Police set up a dedicated cyber crime police station in March 2017, as part of the Central Crime Branch (CCB).
Nanjundappa, a police officer working in the Cyber Crime division in Bengaluru, pointed out that most cases of cyber crimes involved job fraud. “Many of the cases we get are connected to online frauds including promise of jobs,” he said. He also confirmed that there have been no recorded cases of crypto-currency theft in the city yet despite a growing number of users of popular crypto-currency Bitcoin.
Meanwhile, fraudsters in Mumbai developed new scams to dupe people following the government move to ban 500 and 1,000 rupee notes last year. A report by The New Indian Express in December 2016, documented a scam by fraudsters pretending to be from the Reserve Bank of India telling victims that as part of the demonetisation process, the federal bank will also stop the use of debit/credit cards temporarily.
Uttar Pradesh with 2,639 reported cyber crime cases topped the state-wise list followed by Maharashtra with 2,380 and Karnataka with 1,101. The total number of cyber crime cases recorded in India rose to 12,187, from the 11,331 cases recorded in 2015.