Bijnor district, known for its high sugarcane production and some of India’s top sugar mills, is making waves on social media these days, particularly Instagram, for a different reason.
For, big farmers with deep pockets, jewellers and businessmen among others from the district are on the radar of cyber fraudsters who have been devising innovative ways to dupe people of their money.
To deal with the situation, Bijnor Superintendent of Police (SP) Abhishek and his team have roped in local social media influencers to push an awareness drive by making short reels containing songs and dance to inform people how to thwart cyber fraud attempts.
This is part of a campaign announced by Director General of Police (DGP) Rajeev Krishna to tackle incidents of cyber crime.
Most of such crimes are related to online purchases, digital arrest and money transfer with the cyber criminals posing as relatives or friends of their unsuspecting victims, officials said.
SP Abhishek told The Indian Express, “For the last two months, we have been using AI-based tools to create cyber awareness videos. The objective was to make the awareness programme more effective and directed at the modus operandi used by fraudsters, as observed in an analysis of NCRP (National Cyber Reporting Platform) complaints. Till date, three videos on how scammers pose as relatives and friends, how loan offers are used for defrauding people, and how fake SMSes related to banking transactions are used in cyber fraud, have been released on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@bijnorpolice254), X (formerly Twitter) (https://x.com/bijnorpolice) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/share/19dUBzzae1/).”
Since social media is being used by the youth and the elderly alike, it was but natural for them to use these platforms to make their campaign more effective, the SP added.
He added, “We turned to Instagram reels, a popular timepass among people these days. In collaboration with Gulfam, a social media influencer from Bijnor’s Dhampur, a script was prepared for a rap song to improve awareness about cyber crimes. It took around 10 days to make the reel which was primarily shot at the Dhampur railway station with the help of locals. We hope to check this menace by empowering people through information.”
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“Both the content and script for these reels are prepared by us. The influencers featured in these reels share specific ways on dealing with the methods adopted by fraudsters using phone calls, SMSes and Whatsapp messages. Then we request people to contact the police without wasting time,” he said.
Also, in coordination with the local administration and prominent members of civil society, these videos are being run on large LED screens at 40 places in the district, including the Bijnor railway station, Chandpur Cinema Hall, crossroads and religious institutions, the SP said.
He also said, “The response has been good and we found it in a survey we conducted among nearly 20,000 users in the last week of December using Google Sheets through a questionnaire. About 90% of the users called the videos helpful in the sense that they became aware of the frauds and saved themselves from being duped by cyber fraudsters.”
Last month, 329 complaints of cyber fraud were received in the district, officials said.
Bhupendra Pandey is the Resident Editor of the Lucknow edition of The Indian Express. With decades of experience in the heart of Uttar Pradesh’s journalistic landscape, he oversees the bureau’s coverage of India’s most politically significant state. His expertise lies in navigating the complex intersections of state governance, legislative policy, and grassroots social movements. From tracking high-stakes assembly elections to analyzing administrative shifts in the Hindi heartland, Bhupendra’s reportage provides a definitive lens on the region's evolution.
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