PANAJI
After personally facing two close brushes with online scamsters, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday revealed that a close friend had found himself duped of Rs 35 lakh in an online scam, while also urging people to beware of cybercrime.
Sawant, while speaking at a function organised in Panaji to mark the inauguration of a cyber wellness centre here, also said that with access to smart phones to all sections of society and age groups, there was need to be alert about online frauds.
“Some (cybercrime) cases are not reported, most of the time due to lack of awareness among the people. Many people have lost their money as directly they (scamsters) are asking to transfer the money. One of my friend transferred Rs 35 lakhs directly,” Sawant said.
“We have started education with a mobile phone. Automatically, there are other side effects. That has already started. That is one thing. Now there is cybercrime among students, youths, adults and senior citizens. We are receiving so many cyber complaints in our cyber cell,” Sawant further said.
Sawant himself has had two close brushes with potential cyber frauds. In one instance in November last year, unknown persons tried to phish his Aadhar card details, when the Chief Minister was on an official visit to the national capital.
The unknown caller had tried to threaten the CM that the latter's bank account would be frozen if he did not share the Aadhar card number, the Chief Minister himself told reporters soon after, adding that he had reported the matter to the police.
A few months before the phishing incident, in July 2021, Sawant's Facebook account was also cloned and requests sent out for money to his friends.
A month later, Goa Police arrested one Mohammad Shakir, from Mathura in Uttar Pradesh for cloning Facebook accounts of Sawant and several other bureaucrats and politicians.
The Cyber Wellness Centre will provide free of cost 360 degree preventive and curative solutions to online distress.
The Centre -- for children, youth and adults initiated by Responsible Netism with support of Teva India -- is first of its kind in the country and will provide psychological support and counselling.
