The Delhi Police appears to be either underprepared or needs to be shaken up for cases dealing with cybercrime. This could also be true of other police organizations, and the reason why Delhi has been singled out is, because by and large, the Police in the national capital has always been a cut above over others. It is evident that in the past few years, the men in Khaki have slipped and thus need to be reminded that they have a duty to perform, and their lazy and laidback attitude was unpardonable. While it is for the Central government to figure out the causes of this approach and address the problems, the citizens continue to suffer. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday in his Man ki Baat spoke about the issue of digital arrest and how criminals have managed to defraud people of crores of rupees. An Industrialist was duped of huge sums and there was also this instance of the cheats impersonating the Chief Justice of India by setting up a fraudulent court through some methods. The Prime Minister is right. People must be made more aware of the perils and dangers of cybercrime. However, those who are supposed to prevent or sort out this kind of activity, also need to be more diligent and well-equipped to deal with the emerging situation. The government has given out helpline numbers and website ids to register such complaints. What needs to be ascertained is whether these measures work, or are capable of providing adequate response at an appropriate time. More than the equipment which is at hand, the personnel who man these helpline numbers etc. have to show more enthusiasm in handling matters. One must refer to the Crisis Management Group’s state when the Kandahar hijacking had taken place 25 years ago. There were efficient officers even then as they are now, but the phone numbers in the control room were all outdated and much time was spent in contacting the members of this critical group at that critical time. To amplify the matter, I shall like to provide an example of an incident which featured me on Saturday. My WhatsApp was hacked in the morning and my contacts started receiving messages that I was in dire need of help and a certain amount of money should be deposited in a certain bank account or be sent over Google Pay or other such platforms. The fraudsters were persistent and insisted on impersonating me while making demands. Soon after I became aware of the fraud, I asked friends who were in various groups with me to alert every member. It was not possible to forewarn all the contacts but whatever was possible under the circumstances was done. The next step was to call the police. After finding it difficult to get through to the helpline numbers, I started contacting senior officials of the Delhi police. Unfortunately, there was no response to begin with and after persistent efforts, I was able to speak to a district boss, who promptly asked his subordinates dealing with the issue to get in touch. I was handicapped because my phone had been hacked and was worried whether I may be targeted for some financial loss as well.
The police received my complaint and acknowledged its receipt. However, they too had this problem of addressing it since they said that “being a Saturday, the banks would be closed’’ and thus one would have to wait etc. in order to figure out details of the account in which money was sought to be deposited by the fraudsters. In the meanwhile, friends started calling on the regular line to ascertain what the problem was and some of them also provided numbers from where they were getting the calls. But the police seemed out of sorts to help. A retired senior functionary of the police believing I needed help, even asked his household staff to reach out to me and offer the help. Another police officer dealing with the matter sent me a message on WhatsApp knowing fully well that it had been hacked and informed his superior that I was the one who was not taking his calls. Now, what he did was inexplainable. When the WhatsApp was not working, why would he try and communicate on that platform. What Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson would have stated is that “elementary’’ awareness was absent. My WhatsApp remained suspended for over 24 hours and the inability to communicate with my contacts was both worrying and a matter of grave concern. I also came to know that the reason my platform was hacked was because in response to a message from someone I know and respect very much, I had sent him back a message code that he had requested from his phone. It was done in good faith without realizing that the phone of that person had also been compromised. After speaking to the person subsequently, I discovered that her mother’s phone was similarly hacked and since hers was the backup number, she got implicated. Her grouse was that for more than six to seven hours, she was unable to get through to either the Helpline or the website and did not know what to do. Told her that I had not received any response after sending a sms message to some top serving police officers which was astonishing. In any case, there was a lesson to be learnt for the future. Never share any code with anyone and secondly, the best prevention is your own awareness. Depending on the police may be perhaps expecting too much. The Prime Minister has rightly cautioned us regarding digital crime and the Home Ministry and police must take note of this.