Armed with dexterity in skill of its manpower, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police has cracked as many as 39 major cybercrimes involving crores of rupees with the operational base of the fraud owing its genesis to outside the State and overseas.

In recent times, EOW has detected and investigated many cases (39) where the masterminds and bosses of some mega Pan India cyber-financial frauds, were actually operating from faraway places like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc. In some cases they were also running the syndicate from places like China, Hongkong and Dubai, said a senior official of EOW on Sunday.

Rising to the mounting challenges, the EOW too has adapted accordingly in order to face the new challenges of misuse of modern technology, Fin-tech and communication platforms, he said.

On many occasions, EOW conducted operation in other states and arrested many accused persons wanted in cases like- Job frauds, Online Ponzi schemes, Illegal Chinese Loan Apps, Crypto related frauds, Youtube/Hotels etc. liking/rating Scams, Work from home scams, Courier scams, Money earning Apps, hawala related fraud, Share market related fraud, etc.

In the cases where accused were operating from China, Hong Kong, Dubai and Malaysia, lookout circulars have been issued by Bureau of Immigration on the request of EOW.

With the rapid spread of technology especially the internet, Fin-tech (Financial technology), digital payments, social media platforms and alternative/private communication platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp and Telegram, etc., it has changed the cybercrime modus operandi to a great extent.

Cyber criminals have not only become very tech savvy but also they are using innovative and complex methods of misusing the modern technical and communication platforms.

“Also criminals no longer have to operate locally or need to visit the crime spot or physically interact with victims. It gets further challenging as the criminals are no longer dependent on traditional methods of payments in the age of digital payments. Criminals can run their network sitting far away from the place of occurrence,” the official concluded.