Rising cybercrimes take heavy toll on public life

Syed Shemul Parvez :

Cybercrime incidents are increasing in an alarming rate across the world including Bangladesh using different social media platforms while Internet blackmailing has become a major cyber threat to the netizen.

Taking advantage of an easy access to the cyber platforms, the people of different ages, including youths, are involved in various new crimes increasingly.

Some are committing the crimes without realizing the consequences while a good number of them do it with a sound sense. They are misleading the people by spreading rumors on the social media platforms.

Government advisors, important leaders of various political parties, officers of law enforcement agencies including the armed forces are also becoming victims of cybercrime.

Nowadays, blackmailers are relying on various new emerging technologies to make their evil practices more convincing. Cybercriminals
exploit their victims’ vulnerabilities and use complicated patterns to target personal weaknesses in the online atmosphere.

Sources said the rapid growth of technology has allowed everyone access to an unprecedented world of knowledge, but it has also smoothed the way for a rise in network-based crimes, or cybercrimes, many of which are centered around the internet.

In Bangladesh, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram have become increasingly instrumental in facilitating criminal activities, ranging from identity theft and fraud to online gambling and blackmail.

As more people turn to the internet for communication and business, criminals have seized the opportunity to exploit these platforms for evil purposes.

The most common cybercrimes in Bangladesh today include identity hacking, fake account creation, online multi-level marketing scams and gambling.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) has now become a major tool in cybercrime. Earlier, people’s images were distorted using Photoshop. Now, disinformation and rumors are being spread on social media by creating perfect distorted images and videos with AI.

Law enforcement officials say that due to various limitations, controlling cybercrime has been a big challenge in the country in the past few years. This challenge has increased several times due to the use of AI in cybercrime.

Along with this, cybercriminal gangs are taking advantage of the lack of a timely, effective and controversy-free cyber security law.
Officials also said that the Cyber Security Act was last made in 2023 to control cybercrime.

But the interim government repealed the law in principle in November last year. Since then, the police are no longer recording cases under this act in cases of cybercrime. Victims are advised to file cases with the Cyber Tribunal. This gives cybercriminals an opportunity to remain undetected.

Fact-checking company Rumor Scanner has identified 1,133 pieces of misinformation on the internet in the last 4 months. Of these, the company identified 837 pieces of misinformation on the internet in the three months from January to March this year, which is about 28 percent more than the same period last year.

In the first three months of 2024, Rumor Scanner identified 654 pieces of misinformation. The rate of misinformation spread increased in the first quarter of this year due to various national and political events and various religious issues.

On April 6, Sultana Parveen alias Soha (23), a newlywed from Durgapur Union in Aditmari Upazila of Lalmonirhat, committed suicide as a victim of AI technology. She got married to a Japanese expatriate 10 months ago. She was supposed to meet her husband two months later.

The newlywed, who was dreaming of building a golden family abroad, was ruined by an offensive video made with AI technology, which was fake. The video was spread on Facebook from a fake ID. The video was first sent to Sultana and then to her husband. Unable to bear the mental torture, Soha committed suicide on April 6.

A research report by the non-governmental organization Cyber Crime Awareness Foundation says that 52 percent of the complaints of cybercrime victims come from women. The most affected are girls aged 18 to 30, which is about 74 percent.

A large part of the complaints are related to Facebook which includes serious complaints such as ID hacks and superimposed images and pornography.

The CID’s Cyber Police Center received 164,021 complaints in the last 5 years from 2020 to 2024.

In this regards, Additional DIG of the CID’s Cyber Police Center SM Ashrafuzzaman told the media that a person who commits cybercrime using a digital device should seize the device and conduct forensics during the investigation.

Then a case should be filed. Now we are not able to take the case. The case is being filed with the Cyber Tribunal. The Cyber Tribunal asks the police to submit a report. To do this, the police serve notices to the plaintiff and defendant.

Even though the defendant comes, he does not bring the digital device used in the crime. Again, he is deleting the link of the crime. Digital devices and links are very important elements during the investigation. When the investigation officer does not get these two, the case becomes unimportant. Then there is no chance of bringing the criminal to justice. The criminal remains out of reach.

Professor Shariar Afreen, chairman of Criminology Department, University of Dhaka, told The New Nation that cyber crimes are increasing alarmingly daily due to absence of proper protection management, law and punishment.

Emphasizing the crimes, Professor Afreen stated that an organized gang who are experts in IT and internet are committing these crimes along with various newer skills -technique using artificial intelligence. Surprising matter is that most of the educated and aware people are being cheated by this fraud gang daily. So think about the illiterate and unconscious people of the society who are mainly targeted by the gang.

Besides, in Bangladesh criminals are more skilled than police that is one of the major drawbacks to control these crimes, she said.

Mass awareness is needed to control such crimes from the society. But truly speaking there is no such big awareness campaigning marking cyber crimes issues, Professor Afreen added.