Elderly make up 10% of cybercrime victims in AP: Police

Time of India

2 days ago

Visakhapatnam: Elderly citizens in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Kurnool and a few other cities and towns in Andhra Pradesh are turning targets for cybercrooks. Police observed that senior citizens are vulnerable to cybercrooks due to their trusting nature, lack of much digital awareness, loneliness, financial stability and lack of immediate support.
The police said the senior citizens are turning victims in 10 per cent of the total cybercrimes in the cities and towns. In some cases, the victims don't report the crime out of shame, fear or lack of knowledge and sometimes the victims fall into depression due to emotional toll.
In what may turn out to be the biggest cyber financial frauds from an individual reported to cyber crime police station in Vizag city, a 64-year-old man lost Rs5.25 crore.
He received a WhatsApp message with the name of a known sharing trading company and he was promised high returns on investments. The cyber crooks added him to a WhatsApp group. Trusting their claims, the victim transferred money to various bank accounts provided by the fraudsters.
In another incident, a 62-year-old man from Vizag city, was duped over Rs 36 lakh after being manipulated and threatened through WhatsApp video calls by callers posing as Delhi police officers.
The fraudsters falsely implicated the man in a fabricated money laundering case and coerced him to transfer his savings.
Similarly, a 65-year-old retired teacher from Vijayawada locality fell into the digital arrest trap of cyber criminals and ended up losing over Rs31 lakh, including his hard-earned funds. In this case too, the victim was falsely accused of being involved in human trafficking citing that the victim's Aadhar card was used by a man who has been involved in human trafficking cases for opening of a bank account.
The fraudsters posed as TRAI and police officials threatened him that they would arrest him and they looted his hard earned money.
As cyber cases of senior citizens falling victim to various cybercrimes and losing their savings, experts say, it is vital to address the need for spreading awareness and protective measures for this vulnerable group.
We have observed that with the increasing digitisation of banking, and day-to-day services, senior citizens have become soft targets for cybercriminals.
Most of the elderly people don't have much digital knowledge and they don't know about websites that are malicious. The fraudsters have been creating fear, confusion and urgency among senior citizens in the name of digital arrest scams and looting the hard earnings of the senior citizens, said inspector of cyber crime police station, K Bhavani Prasad.
We have been creating awareness among the senior citizens about various cyber crimes, particularly digital arrests and investment frauds as most of the senior citizens are turning victims in digital arrests frauds, he added.
We have observed that sometimes the senior citizens don't get immediate support from their son/daughter as they stay in other cities. The fraudsters exploit the senior citizens' trust, unfamiliarity with digital tools, and emotional triggers, leading to distressing financial and psychological consequences, said a police officer.
Though the internet has brought convenience for us, it also opened doors to scam targeting older people as we are not very tech-savvy and lack cyber awareness, said K Srinvas, a senior citizen in Vizag city. It is the collective responsibility of police, banks and few others to educate the senior citizens about how to identify scams and how to tackle to mitigate such incidents, he added.
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