Even though the overall crime in the city has gone down by 3%, police have treated cybercrime that has witnessed a 62.43% rise as a separate category. Hyderabad has witnessed as many as 1,400 cybercrimes this year, while the crimes recorded in 2018 was just, 401.
The steep rise in cybercrime is being attributed to the rise in the number of internet users in the city.
The Hyderabad police say they have began treating cybercrime as a separate category. Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar at the annual press conference on Thursday told media that, "Compared to Mumbai and Bangalore the cybercrime rates in Hyderabad is much lower. The cybercrime rate has been on the rise in almost all major cities across the world," said the Commissioner.
Speaking to TNM on the sidelines of the event, Avinash Mohanty the Joint Commissioner of Police (Detective Department) and cybercrime said, "So far we have registered 1400 cases under cybercrime category and it's expected to touch 1500 by the end of this year. Cybercrime rates have been going up across the world, the police cannot tackle it on their own not just in Hyderabad but across the world. The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and the banking sector should come together to tackle the problem. We expect cybercrime rates to go up in the next two years as more people start using the internet,".
The officer said that cybercrime criminals are finding creative ways to steal money from the public, "They are moving away from the standard OTP frauds, where they call and ask for your password. Now more theft cases are taking place over the UPI applications, they sent a link to the victim which auto authorises the payment, the victim will not be able to see how much money is getting deducted," said the official.