Digital Arrest: What Various agencies can do
@page { size: 21cm 29.7cm; margin: 2cm } p { line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.25cm; background: transparent }
Currently, the most popular Cybercrime is called digital arrest. It has various modus operandi and finally, it is meant to force someone remotely to pay huge amounts of money, using the latest communication methods like phones, WhatsApp calls etc. I am not going into the details of modus operandi since many of us are aware of it from social media posts. Even our prime minister of India has to comment on this crime. This crime is being committed not only in from India but from other countries too. The total amount estimated which has been cheated from individuals runs into a few thousand crores annually. Many call centers are operating from various places, within and outside of India looking for individuals who can be cheated. As per some YouTube videos, these scammers are paid a few lakh rupees per month.
Various stakeholders in the prevention of these types of crime are the following. Individuals, generally elderly persons, police, banks, telecommunication operators,s and Mobile phone Manufacturers.
Individuals: These people are the most vulnerable since they are targeted by scammers. The following measures will help them to keep their money safe.
Police: Currently police departments concentrate their energy on crime detection and not on crime prevention. If I go to any police station and say someone was trying to cheat me, saying that my telephone number will be blocked in two hours, the first question the police will ask me is, “How much did you lose?”. If I say, “Nothing” the police will ignore me and ask me to go home and take a rest. This is the attitude and culture of the police. Moreover, we shall not be able to change the culture of the police which they have been accustomed to decades.
Instead, we shall form a separate department, which can be within the police, to concentrate on crime prevention and listen to complaints like attempted cheating. Using a simple search in gemini.google.com, India has the following law, for attempted cheating.
“If someone attempts to cheat another person by deceitful means, even if the attempt is unsuccessful, they can be prosecuted under Section 511 of the IPC. The punishment for attempted cheating can vary depending on the severity of the offense and the jurisdiction, but it can include imprisonment and/or fines”
So the above law is good enough to start with. Before any successful cheating event by any scammer, he might have made numerous calls to locate the one who can be cheated successfully. There shall be some mechanism to report attempted cheating. Regular police stations will not serve this purpose. Such an agency need not have a physical office everywhere. If they function online that will be more than good enough. If these types of mechanisms is available, to complain about attempted cheating, and further investigation and punishment, people will not attempt to cheat. This brings down successful cheating incidences.
What Banks Can do: Banks can do much more since the financial transactions happen through them. With the advent of AI tools and other features based on the computerization of banking activity, the following measures can be taken by the banks.
领英推荐
The banks shall maintain up-to-date KYC information. Every year, the banks can verify their customers. This can be automated. Every year, each and every customer has to send his location data (google map location) from his place of residence which he has declared to the bank and he has to send a selfie of his face. Verification of these data can be automated.
Banks shall automatically set a transaction limit for each and every account. Such limits are already available for SBI savings accounts. I can not transfer an unusually large amount even to my known contacts. Such limits can be set by going through the history of transactions. For example, it can be set to twice the largest amount it has received in the last year of operation for receiving payment, and a similar limit can be set for sending payment.
Let us assume, I generally do not send anyone money not exceeding 25000/- then a limit can be set at Rs 1 lakh. This limit shall be applicable for receiving and sending payment. So scammers can not receive unusually large single transaction amounts. These measures alone bring down cheating using the current modus operandi.
Moreover, banks can automatically transfer large unused amounts lying in savings accounts to deposit accounts and pay interest to the account holder. So no individual can transfer a large amount without the help of the bankers.
Mobile phone Manufacturers: By default, these manufacturers shall install apps to mark spam and fraud calls. My phone has this feature. However, it is not clear whether these details are shared with the concerned officials. With the current state of affairs, police will not be interested in these details and maybe banks too. If mobile phone manufacturer comes across any fraud number, they shall inform the banks, so that they can locate the account linked to that number and put that account on watch.
Telecommunication Operators: next to the bank, these people play a major role. These people are the channel partners for scammers. Telco operators shall not allow any call center operation without proper verifications. Even if someone operates illegally, these people can easily locate those numbers. They will be making a huge number of calls per day. They can share those numbers with the police department for verification.
I have seen certain call centers operating through multiple numbers. The same voice message was coming from so many phone numbers. I kept on blocking for a month or so to block all those numbers. If anyone buys multiple numbers simultaneously, then that buyer should be verified.
Generally, these types of cheating happen with the help of someone, either a bank employee, telco operator police or any of these agencies. Bank employees may help the scammers to withdraw the cash and run away. Telco companies may allow to operate illegal call centers.
Government of India: GOI can perform a nodal agency to oversee the cooperation between banks, telcos, and the police. It can create a required legal framework to stop these types of scams and cheating.
If all these agencies cooperate with each other, India will be a better place to live, in this era of Cyber and modern crimes.