The news of cybercrime is increasing across the country. Some deceive by pretending to be friends and extort money, while others engage in blackmail through prank video calls on WhatsApp or social media. Links are sent through WhatsApp or social media, and some groups are scamming people in the name of government schemes, promising jobs, or other false pretenses. Despite being aware of such incidents happening in your home or among friends, people often fall into these traps.
Consider a recent case in Uttarakhand, where a woman had to pay a heavy price for befriending a stranger on Facebook. The woman’s friend enticed her with the lure of sending gifts from the United States and managed to extort a sum of 9 lakh 80 thousand rupees from her. According to the NCRB report, Uttarakhand has recorded 559 cases of cyber fraud, with most incidents occurring in hilly districts. The report indicates that the majority of cases involve making fake explicit videos, blackmailing the victims, and threatening to viral them on social media, accounting for 354 cases.
It is crucial to address the various ways these crimes are occurring, and stringent laws are necessary. Instances of hacking Instagram accounts to demand money through messages are becoming common. As extracting information has become easier, people inadvertently expose a lot of their information by clicking on unnecessary links. Witness how AI is used to create deepfake images by photoshopping faces onto different bodies. This phenomenon is affecting people of all ages, and it is time for the government to take strict measures to protect private information and curb the spread of the cybercrime virus.
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