The city police have launched an awareness campaign against online bank frauds. Around 4,000 cases of online frauds are reported in Calcutta every year.

Three other projects were also announced on Friday — an initiative to seek assistance of NGOs in tracing missing persons, setting up of an all-woman help desk at the cyber police station and opening of cyber labs in all nine police divisions to handle the increasing number of cases of cyber frauds.

Police commissioner Anuj Sharma launched the projects during the monthly crime conference on Friday.

Bank fraud

The police said they would contact housing societies and schools, colleges and other institutes and hold awareness campaigns to emphasise the importance of not sharing one-time passwords (OTPs) with any stranger, even if the person claims to be a bank official or says that one’s debit card or e-wallet is about to be blocked.

Officers said a large number of online frauds are perpetrated because victims share their OTPs over the phone with people who claim to be bank officials.

The police have named the project “Rakshakavach.”

Sandhan

A project named Sandhan (meaning whereabouts) was launched to trace people who have been missing for years. A large number of people, including women and children, go missing from the city regularly and many remain untraced for years.

The police said they would collaborate with NGOs and use their contacts across the country to search for missing people.

Help desk for women

An all-woman-help desk has been set up at the cyber police station in Lalbazar, where women complainants can seek assistance related to problems of cyber fraud, which they find it difficult to discuss with male officers.

“Women and children often fall victim to online frauds. Many of them express their willingness to speak to women officers. The desk has been created to help such victims,” an officer said.

Cyber labs

A cyber lab has been set up in each of the nine police divisions to reduce the load on the cyber police station at Lalbazar. Till now all online frauds reported at the police stations across the city used to be forwarded to the cyber police station.

On an average, around 200 cases of cyber offence are registered with the Calcutta police every year. However, the actual number of cases police receive is almost 20 times more. Many of the cases are solved before an FIR can be registered.