A new initiative has been launched by the Central Government under “Cyber Secure Bharat” to automatically convert complaints filed under the National Crime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in) or under phone call to 1930 to a Zero FIR. A Zero FIR can be filed at any Police Station and once registered, they may be transferred to the jurisdictional Police Station.
Currently this will be implemented for complaints of over Rs 10 lakhs.
In the present system the complaints were forwarded to the Jurisdictional Police Station and the complainant had to again go to the local police station.
While this is a good initiative, it is necessary to extend this even to complaints involving small amounts. If the loss is large then it is possible for the victims to engage a lawyer and pursue the filing of the complaint in the normal course. It is the small victims who are in larger numbers who need the support of the web based system and hence it should be available for all.
Further, filing of a complaint is only the first step and what needs to be achieved is an effective follow up where the money is recovered through prompt action.
At present Police are completely ignoring the role of Banks who open accounts for the fraudsters without proper KYC and facilitate the crime. Also the Banks were the debits originate donot stop payment at the transferee Bank and insist that the victim should follow it up by themselves. This should stop.
In every cyber fraud complaint the primary responsibility for recovery should be with the Victim’s Bank who should invoke Cyber Insurance. Unless there is proof that the victim was an accomplice in the crime, it should be presumed that he/she is an innocent victim and money recovered through Cyber Insurance or by stopping payment at the transferee Bank. Where the money has already been withdrawn at the transferee Bank, the responsibility of that Bank for abetting the crime should be invoked.
Unless the negligence of the Bankers is reduced, Cyber Secure Bharat cannot be a reality.
Naavi
