Robberies in dark cyber space

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By S Jha

New Delhi, July 12: There’s no end to agonies for the youth to fall prey for fraudsters promising jobs in the cyberspace. Consumers too are fleeced by fake websites offering trendy products at deep discounts.

Manoj Rathi (name changed), a resident of Greater Noida, was exploring the best buying options for a sport bicycle. The big e-marketplaces quoted prices in the range of Rs 15000 to Rs 30000.

He was soon stunned to see another website, not known, offering similar models with same features at a heavily discounted price, almost 80 per cent. That was a jaw-dropping price.

He clicked the link and there he saw scores of sport bicycle, while the website looked no less attractive then Amazon and Flipkart.

“The bicycle that was selling at Rs 18500 on Amazon was available for Rs 3000. It further said that the product will be delivered the next day,” said Rathi.

He went for the lure of the deep discount.

“The amount was debited. The confirmation message also came instantly. In another 30-minute, the message came that the bicycle has been delivered at his residence,” said Rathi, who is a lawyer by profession.

Rathi immediately knew that he had bene conned by the cyber fraudsters.

“None of the numbers provided for the customer care worked,” said Rathi.

He immediately rushed to the Greater Noida cyber cell of the police, and persisted with his requests for lodging an FIR.

“The police said that there are so many such cyber fraudsters, with equally a large number of victims,” he added.

Rathi pursued with the cyber police and got the payment blocked to the fake website from the payment gateway.

“I being a lawyer knew how to deal with such cases and recovered the amount by following the issue with the cyber police. But how many victims can pursue cases of cyber cheating, and how many of them are even aware. How many people could even find time, while the smaller cities, and districts in the state are yet to have the wherewithal of cyber cells of the police to crackdown against such cyber fraudsters,” he added.

Incidentally, the dark world of the web is full of such cyber robbers, and the government machineries are still learning to deal with them.