Pune: Pune city has reported a steep rise in cybercrime in the past year, with a total number of offences registered in the city has gone up to 15,000.

Now to keep a strict eye on scammers, Pune city police has set up five units for probing cybercrime cases. As per the statistics, 5,741 complaints were filed in 2017 while 2018 saw 4,461 cases. In 2019, over 7,500 complaints lodged in the city while the last year the toll jumped to 15,000. Earlier Pune police had a cybercrime cell under the Crime Branch to investigate more serious cases. In 2018, a dedicated cybercrime police station was established at Shivajinagar police headquarters premises. Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner, now has decided to set up five units to probe the cybercrime cases.

THE NEW FUNCTIONING

After receiving the complaint, the cyber police station will allocate the cases to units based on their specialisation. The police inspector of the unit will instruct the officers and staff to file a cyber-complaint for further action and it will also supervise the transfer of the complaint to police stations. If the amount of fraud committed is more than Rs 10 lakh and the number of complainants is more, instructions for investigation will be given by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP).

HERE ARE THE FIVE UNITS

· Hacking and data theft: Data in-script, email hacking, data theft, digital signature

· Online business fraud: OLX, Flipkart, Multi-level marketing, Mobile money transfer hacking, online sale and purchase.

· Cheating fraud: Online dating site, insurance, job, loans, package tour, mobile Tower, matrimonial

· Social networking: Facebook, fake documents, Facebook hacking extortion, defamation, video uploading and more.

· ATM card fraud: Money transfer debit, credit card, clone card, OTP share, mobile, laptop theft and others.