The terms ‘digital arrest’ and ‘cyber fraud’ are no stranger to anyone keeping up with the news. There is a growing fear among the public of being duped of their life’s savings and with cybercrimes showing a 43 per cent rise in Telangana, people are grappling to hold on to any safeguards.
The National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) has brought together a database of fraudsters’ details on their website which can be accessed by anyone.
The website hosts an option called “report and check suspect” under which victims are presented with options to check “suspect repository” where they can verify the identity of a scamster by cross-checking details like phone numbers, emails, UPI IDs or social media details in the database.
The website also allows checking the reliability of websites and mobile apps through the database which is compiled on the basis of complaints received by them. However, they warn against the comprehensiveness of the database since cybercriminals are known to rapidly create and dispose of any identifiers.
Apart from checking for repeat cheaters, the website also allows reporting of attempted cybercrime by bringing to notice suspicious website URLs, Whatsapp numbers/ Telegram handles, phone numbers, emails, SMS headers/ numbers and social media URLs etc.
The website also provides links on how to report suspicious activities to social media intermediaries like Whatsapp, X, Google etc.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has also been signed between the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), India, and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), USA regarding receiving of tip-line reports on online child pornography and child sexual exploitation contents from NCMEC allowing citizens to file complaints if they suspect that their explicit pictures have been uploaded on the internet.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Veena Nair | 
