According to a top Haryana Police officer on Thursday, some 28,000 mobile phone numbers used fraudulently to conduct cybercrimes have been detected and will be blocked shortly.
According to Additional Director General of Police (Crime) O P Singh, the 27,824 phone numbers were located using the cybercrime helpline number 1930 and the online complaint system cybercrime.gov.in.
According to the senior police officer, the data of these numbers have been forwarded to the field units, so they may be blocked by uploading them to the CyberSafe portal run by the India Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Union home ministry.
According to Singh, the districts with the highest use of mobile numbers included Gurugram (7,142), Faridabad (3,896), Panchkula (1,420), Sonipat (1,408), Rohtak (1,045), Hisar (1,228), and Ambala (1,101).
Singh directed them to post cellphone numbers used to conduct cybercrimes on the CyberSafe platform in a mail sent to all district nodal officials for cybercrime.
To “conduct out IMEI linkage analysis through the mobile device being used to run these numbers, find out additional mobile numbers being used by the handset, and post these numbers to CyberSafe for their blockage by the Department of Telecommunications,” the field units have also been requested.
Until September of this year, the hotline number 1930, 29 cyber police stations, and 309 cyber desks at territorial police stations around the state received almost 47,000 reports of cybercrimes.
“More than Rs. 15 crores in stolen funds have been recovered by police and given back to the victims,” Singh said.
He declared October to be “National Cyber Security Month.”
The Haryana Police ran 2,526 mass engagement programs from October 1 to 25, attracting 19.7 lakh people, to raise awareness about cybersecurity advice like identifying and reporting phishing, using strong passwords, keeping software updated, using multi-factor authentication, and reporting cyber frauds and harassment.
According to Singh, an additional 26.7 lakh persons were reached by the Haryana Police via social media, bringing the total to 46.4 lakhs—or one in five residents of the state.
“In the next four days, we will surpass the 50-lakh threshold. The increase in daily reports of cybercrime to 1930 is evidence of the resulting increased awareness, “Said Singh.
