Shimla, Feb 28
Anyone gullible can be expected to become victim of cyber crime but in this case it is the Himachal Pradesh Transport Department which was duped by three fake bidders. According to Additional Director of the Transport Department Hemis Negi three fake bidders quoted more than one crore bids in a online auction for a VVIP number HP-09-9999.
However later, on investigation it turned out that all the top three bidders were found fraudulent.
Noteworthy that till the last Sunday, the auction portal had hardly any response and when it did, the first three top bidders who participated in the auction, turned out to be fake.
As per information, Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has ordered a cyber crime probe after this action incidence.
Taking action in the matter, the Himachal Transport Department has suspended the VVIP fancy number portal. Some new changes and upgrades are being done in the portal. For this, the Transport Department has asked NIC (National Informatics Center) to do the improvements in the portal. Bidding will be done in a new way after the software is updated.
The first fake bidder had applied from Hotel Peterhoff Shimla, Second from Palampur of Kangra district and Third was from the Industrial township Baddi of Solan district. Their addresses were also found to be fake.
It is worthwhile to mention that online transactions and deals are not fool-proof. If Government agencies could be duped by fraudsters, then the scale of crime on gullible citizens could be estimated.
A source in cyber cell stated that large numbers of people are being duped on day to day basis. Number of matters remain pending with the cyber police station for years to be sorted out. From Government agencies, Businessman, Employees, Senior Officers including bureaucrats are among victims of cyber crime.
