Vizag second in cybercrime among 34 metros, NCRB report reveals

Vizag ranked second among the 34 metropolitan cities in India in cybercrime, according to the statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for the year 2019. As many as 400 incidents of cybercrime and cheating cases were reported last year from various police stations in the city.

The NCRB considered the cities with a population between 1 million and 2 million across the country and announced the rankings. While Varanasi topped the list recording 448 cases and contributing 16.1 percent share, Allahabad stood at the third position contributing 12.7 percent. According to the data provided by the bureau, Vizag witnessed a decline in the crime against women in the city last year. However, Vizag ranked third in this category.

There have been several instances in the recent past, where the Vizag Cybercrime Police cracked multiple cases of online job scams and e-commerce frauds. Earlier this week, an incident came to light when the cybercriminals created a fake website with an altered domain, duplicating the official website of the Visakhapatnam Port Trust. The miscreants had posted a job notification for trainee engineers and diploma trainee posts. Speaking to Yo!, a senior official from the City Cybercrime Police said that people’s lack of awareness about using the social media and e-commerce platforms is one of the factors leading to an increase in such cases. “It was observed that most of the offenders are highly qualified individuals. In order to prevent the citizens from falling into their trap, we have been creating awareness programmes to educate especially the youngsters and women,” added the police officer.

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh stood sixth among the states with a crime rate of 227.9 cases per one lakh population in the year 2019, while Haryana topped the list with 386.4 cases per lakh, according to the National Crime Records Bureau report.