Kolkata Police Launches ‘Cybuzz’ Initiative To Combat Rising Cyber Crimes

In a bid to combat the rising cyber crime cases, Kolkata Police in collaboration with the Department of Information Technology, Government of West Bengal, will be introducing a specially designed cyber awareness bus -‘Cybuzz’. It will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on January 9.

This bus will be raising awareness about various cyber threats among general public and will also show preventive measures for the same. It will be equipped with informative materials, video wall, interactive tabs as well as posters and banners with various awareness content which will be shown to all section of society. Cyber quizzes targeting children will also be conducted by the commuters in the bus.

Senior citizens and children are the ones most vulnerable to cyber crimes. Sources told News18 that ‘Cybuzz’ will be taken to various schools and old age homes.

Apart from this, Cybuzz will also be placed in various important roads and locations. The content kept inside the bus will elucidate the latest cybercrime modus operandi and will provide guidance.

Speaking about this latest initiative, Joint CP (Organisation) Syed Waquar Raza said, “Over the last few months, there has been several reported cases of home frauds, following which we have arrested many people. They start with sending messages on WhatsApp, approaching a person to write reviews or like on Facebook or social media. At times, they claim to be from certain reputed MNC and also make some initial payments to the victim just to gain trust. Then they ask the victim to join other groups on telegram and WhatsApp, luring them to invest money in cryptocurrency, equities, etc.”

“After carrying out the fraud, people suddenly remove the chats, leaving the victims helpless. With the help of Cybuzz and other social media platforms, we are trying to generate awareness so that people do not fall for such frauds. We are also taking the help of FM radio to spread awareness,” the Joint CP added.

Raza further said that through Cybuzz, they aim to educate people, especially children regarding the various ways in which cybercrime happens and how one can keep themselves safe from them, through games, audio-visual means, interesting leaflets and cartoons.