Indian Government is Training Policemen to Crackdown Electronic Fraud

Indian government and law enforcement are allocating increased capital in training police officers to crackdown electronic fraud involving online transactions. A facility was launched in the police headquarters in Kasaba Bawada to ensure police officers obtain necessary information and technical expertise to detect electronic fraud.

Sohali Sharma, superintendent of Police, announced:

“In Kolhapur district, new software and machines have been installed in the cyber lab to help in detection of cyber crime. The cyber lab is set up in the main building of police headquarters in Kasaba Bawada area of city.”

Sharma and the rest of his team at the police headquarters admitted that cyber crime is a new form illegal activity which local police and law enforcement aren’t fully aware of. The vast majority of local police officers are yet to obtain clear understanding of cyber crime and other online illicit activities involving money.

Thus, in the upcoming months, policemen in the newly established cyber lab facility will spend time in analyzing various situations involving fraudulent transactions and implementing practical solutions in a simulation-based environment.

“These types of crimes are new to the police force as well. We are conducting series of training sessions for the officers to get acquainted to different types of crimes and how to investigate these crimes,” Sharma added.

He also further emphasized that local law enforcement agencies will begin imposing serious consequences for cybercrime and fraud. Indian police will also crackdown on money laundering operations conducted by criminals using illegal payment channels to send or receive money in an unregulated ecosystem.

Overtime, Sharma believes changes in training courses and introduction of important cyber lab facilities will increase awareness of cyber crime and financial fraud.

“The online transactions and use of new portals for business transactions through computers or smartphones are new to the people. This may give an opportunity to people involved in cybercrime for cheating people. We agree that police are also not aware of this type of crimes but the situation will change soon. Refresher courses and training sessions to upgrade police force for tackling these crimes have been going on and the situation has improved. We are now taking these types of crimes seriously,” Sharma added.

Sharma’s statements suggest that the Indian law enforcement and police will crackdown on various money laundering cases involving online payment methods. Inevitably, Indian police will come across bitcoin transactions in several illicit trading platforms such as darknet marketplaces.

As seen in the Netherlands wherein police cooperate with local prosecutors to charge unregulated bitcoin service providers and exchange operators, it is highly likely to see a similar course of action in India.

As a result, the Indian bitcoin ecosystem may also see tightening of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) policies particularly within the bitcoin and fintech markets. The Indian police also will start requesting increased amounts of information from local bitcoin exchanges to crackdown on fraudulent transactions, which will emerge as a major issue for local exchanges and trading platforms to deal with.