Cybercrime complaints top 95k

Sexual harassment, financial fraud account for majority of cases in Punjab

LAHORE:

Amid an increasing use of online communication by citizens, the number of complaints regarding cybercrimes also rose during 2021.

Official record showed that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cybercrime Wing has received 95,567 complaints of online fraud, sexual harassment, hate speech and blasphemy from across Punjab so far this year.

The highest number of requests for action was related to sexual harassment, accounting for 32 per cent of the complaints, followed by financial fraud 25%, social media abuse 23%, blasphemy 10% and hate speech 7%.

The sexual harassment cases involved politicians, businesspersons, doctors, lawyers and most of all college and university students. Their objectionable videos and photos went viral on social media due to which their image was tarnished.

In some cases, students from different cities were made to pay large amounts or were sexually exploited by blackmailers threatening to share their compromising content.

Businessmen and bankers of Lahore, Sialkot and Faisalabad, as well as doctors of Jinnah Hospital, were among the complainants.

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Officials said there were also a number of cases where women complainants of sexual harassment withdrew the complaints, did not take part in the interrogation or pardoned the suspects.

About a quarter of the complaints received by the FIA wing were of online fraud.

The suspects also included some foreigners who deprived citizens of their savings tricking them with offers of foreign citizenship. Most of the victims were lured on the pretext of lottery tickets and Ehsas financial support to obtain their bank account and debit and credit card details.

The FIA arrested 1,160 people during the year in cybercrime cases, including six women involved in fraud, and submitted 552 challans.

However, only 28 people were sentenced over complaints lodged with the wing during the period.

The official data shows that cases of online fraud are increasing proportionately with the use of social media and online communication.

An official said the fraudsters and harassers often took advantage of lack of awareness among users about online safety.

Meanwhile, a very dangerous trend of hate speech and blasphemy on social media is spreading. Such statements or allegations go viral on social media without confirmation, due to which lives of people are put at risk.

FIA Cyber Wing Director General Babar Bakht Qureshi told The Express Tribune that his team was striving to proceed with all the cases despite limited resources and constraints in acquiring required record from the social media organisations.

He said the people needed to be aware of safety issues related to modern communication technology.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 31^st, 2021.