Cyber crime experts and the police believe there are at least 25 different ways of cheating people online using e-mails and web links. They say such ploy often proves successful due to the lack of awareness, hesitation in coming forward with complaints and sometimes because of greed.

Vadodara-based chartered accountant, Sanjeev Shah, who is a certified fraud examiner, said India is ranked higher than the rest of the world when it comes to cyber crimes. “The world average for getting cheated online is two per cent, while in India, it is eight per cent. The occurrence is higher as the target audience (in India) are the people with less awareness about fraudulent online schemes,” he said.

He further said there is no institutionalised method to spread awareness about such issues and only a few educational seminars are organised in this regard. “Until people know about how they can be cheated, such incidents will always occur ,” he said.

Commenting on the recent lottery fraud case, he said it is just one of the few methods of hoodwinking public on the Internet. “Apart from this, the cheats use methods like claiming that the user has been left behind a vast inheritance. Or sometimes they pretend to be a senior bank manager and ask for account details , or even pretend to be a rich widow wanting to get married,” Shah said. He added that in most cases, tracking the offenders becomes difficult as the money is transferred to relatively unknown banks in foreign countries.

Though cyber crime complaint departments exist in most states, not all the cases are reported. Senior police officials rued that several firms and companies, who fall prey to cyber crimes, do not file complaints for fear of tarnishing their “goodwill”.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an officer said, “Many service providers like banks, stock traders and other organisations do not come forward with complaints, which means we cannot deal with the cases head-on. Cyber crime instances are higher than what it seems.”