Campus Journalist 
How to register a cybercrime complaint in Assam?
–Shreya Deb
Cybercrime is an umbrella term that is used to define criminal activities taking place on the Cyber space. In this form of crime, computers or computer networks are used as a tool, or a target, or both and can range from hacking, phishing, bank frauds, cyber bullying, identity theft to DDoS attacks, child pornography and cyber terrorism. Cybercrimes are carried out as a means to generate personal or monetary profit for cybercriminals, or use computer or computer networks to spread malware viruses, or are used against computers to damage them.
Due to the easy access of Internet, and its limitless expanse which cannot be always filtered, has led to a sharp increase in Cybercrime in India. Surprisingly, the beautiful tea state of India – Assam, comes in one of the top states in terms of cybercrimes. The state has witnessed a steady rise in cybercrime record, from 379 cases in 2014, 483 cases in 2015, 696 cases in 2016, 1120 cases in 2017 to 2022 cases in 2018. This amounts to 443.5% increase in cybercrimes (only reported cases) in just 5 years.
As per data published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the cybercrime rate of Assam is 5.9 as compared to the All India rate which is 2.1. For those who have no idea, what cybercrime rate is; it is the number of cybercrimes taking place per one lakh population.
It has been observed by police authorities and Cyber cell officers of Assam that majority of cybercrime cases were committed with the purpose of causing disrepute, fraud or sexual exploitation.
Registering a cybercrime complaint:
To combat this serious issue of cybercrime, Criminal Investigation Departments (CIDs) of different cities opened up Cyber Crime Cells in different cities. The IT Act, 2000 clearly states out that a cybercrime has global jurisdiction, and therefore any complaint pertaining to cybercrime can be filed at any cyber cell, irrespective of the jurisdiction of where the crime took place.
The Assam Cyber Crime Cell is situated at Ulubari, Guwahati-781007 and functioning at CID Headquarters. It has been established with an objective to investigate Cybercrime cases, which are complicated in nature, and are not being able to investigate duly by the District police due to lack of technical knowledge and technical experts.
The offences investigated under the Cyber Crime Cell are:
Social Media Fraud,
Publishing obscene materials in Facebook,
Hacking of Email ID/ Facebook ID/ Bank Accounts,
Creation of fraud account and
Financial Fraud.
These are the steps to register a cybercrime complaint:
Lodging a complain – While registering a cybercrime complaint the first and foremost step is to lodge a complaint. The complaint should narrate the entire incident of the crime. The complainant should not fail to mention the brief history. For instance, if it is a cyber stalking case, when and how did it start, did you know the stalker in person or not etc.
Personal Information – The complainant must provide his/her name, contact details, telephone number and mailing address along with an application letter addressing the head of a cybercrime investigation cell.
Lodge a FIR – A FIR (First Information Report) must be lodged at the nearest police station, addressing the officer-in-charge of the respective police station, requesting to take necessary action.
Supporting documents – While registering the complaint, certain documents need to be attached or annexed to support the facts of the case, which is known as supporting documents. These documents need to sign the copy of documents before submitting it. The list of supporting documents varies from case to case, depending upon the type and nature of cybercrime committed. For Instance, for the following cases, the respective supporting documents must be submitted along with the complaint:
Online Banking Fraud:
-Copy of updated Bank Passbook
-Photocopy of last page of the Bank Passbook, during which crime has taken place.
-First page consisting of the name and Account number of the bank account holder.
Lottery Fraud:
-Mobile number or e-mail address from which lottery message was received.
-Downloaded copy of Lottery message.
-Signed copy of Money deposit counter foil slip from bank.
ATM Phishing Fraud:
-Mobile number or e-mail address from which call or message has been received to provide ATM Card details.
-Copy of updated Bank Passbook.
-Photocopy of last page of the Bank Passbook, during which crime has taken place.
-First page consisting of the name and Account number of the bank account holder.
Social Media Gift Fraud:
-Print of screenshots of all objectionable photographs, in which URL is clearly visible.
-Print of screenshots of all messages relating to the gifts.
-Signed copy of Money deposit counter foil slip from bank.
ATM Fraud by changing ATM Card:
-Copy of updated Bank Passbook.
-Photocopy of last page of the Bank Passbook, during which crime has taken place.
-First page consisting of the name and Account number of the bank account holder.
Data theft:
-Copyright certificate of the stolen data.
-Details of any suspected person/persons.
Vulgar emails:
-Headers of the offending email.
-Soft copy and hard copy of offending email.
-Copy of offending email from inbox
-Copy of offending email from hard drive.
It is very important to report a cybercrime to the Cybercrime cells and in absence of such, to the local police station, since these departments not only investigate the cybercrime but also facilitate in reporting the crime, on time. A victim can also make a complaint to the cybercrime department online at https://cybercrime.gov.in/Webform/crmcondi.aspx or give a call at the Assam cybercrime helpline number at 0361-2524494.
Registering a cyber crime is important since it can save a lot of people from experiencing the same as you did. This article mentions in detail all that you need to do while registering a cyber crime.
A brilliant and well-researched article with practical approach. Although many digital platforms discuss extensively about cyber crimes, little do they provide with an actual solution. The article enlists the solutions with steps that are available to victims of cyber crimes. An informative piece for every active digital media user.
Very helpful article indeed. It well describes the Cybercrimes and the approach to report the same.
Very helpful article indeed. It well describes the Cybercrimes and the approach to report the same. In today’s arena cybercrime is something running quite parallel to increasing use of internet and thus it becomes important to know how to complaint such crimes.
This article gives us information on how to file a report of any kind of cybercrime. This process is a combination of steps and has many formalities done. But are these rules only for assam or also for other states?
Good work.