Assistant Commissioner of Police, Cyber Crime, Mysuru, N. Sneha Raj on Monday cautioned the public against allowing unknown persons to transact money through their bank accounts.

Speaking to reporters after addressing a financial fraud awareness programme in Mysuru on Monday, Ms. Raj cautioned the public to be wary of strangers who pretend to be in trouble and seek help.

They request for withdrawing money transferred to their account from an unknown account or transferring the money deposited into their account to a different account, she said.

A majority of the people may oblige the favour-seeking stranger out of sympathy, but may end up having their account frozen in cases relating to cyber fraud.

"For, the amount transferred to their bank account could be part of a money trail," she cautioned. Even if one goes to the bank and professes his innocence in a bid to defreeze their account, the bank officials will be helpless and send the customer to the police.

"If the FIR against the fraud is registered elsewhere in the country say Rajasthan, the bank customer will be forced to the approach the police station in Rajasthan," Ms. Raj said.

However, there was no problem to conduct such transactions with their family members of people they knew.

Child pornography

The Assistant Commissioner also cautioned people watching pornography sites to be wary of stumbling upon child pornography, which is a crime.

Pointing out that the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), an international child protection organisation, maintains a vigil on phones engaged in child pornography, the cybercrime official said that most porn watchers will not be able to make out the difference between a minor and an adult aged above 18.

A "red flag" will be raised immediately against a phone that "views, shares, or stores" child pornography and a cyber "tipline" report will be generated and passed on to the jurisdictional Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the respective States. The CID will in turn entrust the case to the local CEN police based on the IP address and other details.

To a question, Ms. Raj said two such cases of child pornography have been registered in Mysuru.

Cybercrime official's caution against allowing strangers to transact through their bank accounts