Help Cyber Crime Victims

As we pass through 2024 we see a significant rise in Cybercrimes in various forms. It is important to provide critical support to victims who face consequences of cyber crime. Victims should come out and report such crimes to the helpline cyber police or other helpline forms. The Indian government has started an online portal to offer help for cyber crime victims. Here is the link: https://cybercrime.gov.in/ . The cybercrime helpline number is 1903.

There are a variety of cyber attacks faced by victims. Few are mentioned below:

Fake/cloned profiles: Social media accounts are targets of cyber criminals as they contain a lot of personal information.Many accounts of Social media accounts of influencers, emails or other online services are hacked and taken over. Such accounts are a risk to financial and personal identity. Such profiles are used for financial, catfish, job related frauds.

Online bullying: This form includes abusing,harassing, profile shaming, spreading rumours related to victims.

Ransomware attacks: This form of attack is usually conducted using malware to encrypt the organisation's files. A payment is demanded to get a key for decrypting the files. It is the most prominent and visible attack everywhere. Many hospitals,fintechs, and law firms were affected due to this attack.

Pornography/ Child pornography: Pornography means production, distribution,importation, reception, or possession of pornographic materials. Many couples have fallen victims to such attacks. Their photos were collected from social media accounts and morphed in pornographic videos.

The Ministry of Home affairs India has established an Indian cyber crime coordination centre to fight against cyber crimes and help victims. The link to it: https://cybercrime.gov.in People can register complaints for different types of cyber crimes. Once the complaint is filed, an acknowledgement number is generated which can be used to track the complaint.

The ministry of Home affairs offers companies and individuals to become cyber volunteers. The applications are received directly by respective state nodals. Cyber volunteers can help law and enforcement agencies to report unlawful content on the internet. This program is also used to create cyber awareness amongst citizens.

The portal also provides cyber security tips. There are handbooks on tips for parents, students, teens and organisations. These are available in Hindi and English. Their daily digest provides updates,news on cyber crimes and how they were solved.

Reporting a Cyber crime is important to analyse the crime and prevent further attacks. The report should contain all the information with all the facts. The report should contain the name, contact details of the reporting person/company. It should contain facts related to attacks such as type of attack, date, type of loss such as financial,business,emotional trauma.

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended.

Reference and all necessary credits to : https://cybercrime.gov.in