Rising Cybercrime in Bangladesh: Police hotlines flooded with complaints

“Please save me, I have no other option but to die.”

A middle-aged homemaker pleaded while calling the hotline number of Police Cyber Support for Women (PCSW) wing at the Police Headquarters around midnight on November 29.

The victim said she gave an alert post on Facebook that her sister’s ID had been hacked. Responding to it, a woman called her on messenger and said it would take money to recover the hacked ID.

During further communication, the caller hacked this woman’s ID and demanded the victim engage in some unsocial activities or pay a huge sum of money to get her ID back.

As the victim refused to oblige, the hacker started sending fabricated messages to her relatives and friends. The messages were so offensive and vulgar that the woman broke down mentally.

The PCSW officials first tried to calm her down, saying suicide could not be a solution and that she needed to be strong to ensure punishment of the criminals.

Following an hour-long counselling, the victim started providing information and the hacker was eventually arrested, according to a PCSW official.

Shakila Yeasmin Suchana, an assistant superintendent of police at the PCSW wing, told The Daily Star on December 7 that they often receive such desperate calls.

“We have to calm them down with proper counselling over phone or on Facebook messenger before taking action against the criminals,” she added.

Since the special wing, consisting of only the female members of police, was launched on November 16, PCSW has received around 4,567 complaints on its hotline number – 01320-000888 — or its Facebook page.

Of the complaints, 1,096 were for fake ID, 638 for ID hack, 367 for blackmailing, 435 for mobile harassment and 356 for sending nude content, according to the wing’s database.

Mir Abu Touhid, assistant inspector general at the Police Headquarters, said they act promptly whenever any complaints reach the wing.

Of the complaints, around 1,344 have been addressed till December 7, he added.

COMPLAINTS MULTIPLYING
Just nine months back in March this year, the Cyber Police Centre of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) launched a Facebook page to create awareness and receive complaints of cybercrime victims. It can also be reached over the phone by dialling 01320-010148.

“When we launched the page, we used to receive around 50 to 100 complaints daily,” said Mohammad Mahmudul Islam Talukder, additional police superintendent at the Cyber Police Centre.

“But it started rising rapidly soon after as awareness among the victims grew about where to file complaints. Now the Cyber Police Centre is receiving around 1,500 complaints daily from different areas of the country and the number is rising every day,” he said.

The cell received around 700 to 800 complaints daily in September.

The official observed the lack of digital knowledge and slack vigilance from the authorities on the use of Facebook had worsened the situation. Many users get tricked, harassed and blackmailed by fake social media account holders and are left socially humiliated.

The Cyber Police Centre received around 7,020 complaints on Facebook and 8,486 complaints over phone from September 1 to November 18 this year, according to its database.

Majority of the victims are aged 14-30.

CID has completed investigation of around 197 cases in two years till November of this year and around 179 cases are under investigation.

ONLINE APPS UNDER SURVEILLANCE

Md Kamrul Ahsan, additional DIG of CID Cyber Police, told this newspaper recently that they have marked out some online applications behind sexual harassment.

Nude contents are being aired in these apps, instigating the youth to commit offences like sexual harassment, he said.

“We have prepared a list of around 100 such online applications, which are easy to download for free. We will write to BTRC soon to ban these online social media apps,” the official added.

He said some neighbouring countries have already started taking action against this type of app.

In a recent move, India has taken off Likee from Google Play and App Store and also suspended the operation of Bigo app, according to media reports.

CRIME ZONE
The CID has marked out some districts as cybercrime zones after analysing the 7,020 complaints on Facebook and 8,486 complaints over phone from September 1 to November 18 of this year.

These complaints include digital fraud, digital question paper leak, dollar purchase, pornography and mobile financial account fraud, said SM Ashraful Alam, special superintendent (investigation and operation) of CID Cyber Police.

Most of the crimes related to online purchase are committed in Joypurhat district. These criminals mainly give attractive ads on social media to sell their products.

Once a person shows interest, the criminals seek advanced payments to send the products. But they just block the person or close their SIM card soon after anyone sends the money.

The location of most of these criminals were found in Joypurhat district, said CID officials.

Similarly, those who are expert in hacking mobile financial banking accounts were mostly found in Faridpur district.

CID officials marked out Chattogram city as a major zone of account hackers.

Besides, Dhaka is also marked vulnerable to online cheating. Law enforcers have arrested around 100 foreign nationals in the last couple of months on charge of online cheating.

A section of foreigners in Bangladesh, mostly from African countries, are involved in online fraudulent activities with the help of local people, said officials.

CLONING OF SIM
CID officials say the technique the criminals use in mobile banking fraud is unique.

The criminals collect the account numbers of mobile banking users — especially of those who transact large amounts of money — from the agents of different mobile banking service providers.

They then collect passwords from the account holders, after making a call with a spoofed (cloned) number belonging to the official number of mobile banking service providers. Later, they embezzle money by using the passwords, said officials.

Cloning of SIM (subscriber identity module) cards is a system through which fraudsters make calls using a person’s number.

Mahmudul Islam, additional superintendent of Cyber Police Centre, said they received a huge number of complaints from mobile baking fraud victims daily.

He suggested that the victims inform CID immediately after the swindle so that they could freeze the suspected account and recover the money.

Source: Daily Star