An overwhelming majority of Qatar residents has put major responsibility on the shoulders of victims for cybercrimes especially crimes of blackmail and extortion instead of cybercriminals in an ongoing online opinion poll being conducted by the country's Ministry of Interior.
Out of a total 1,365 people who have taken part in the ongoing online survey, 1,150 respondents see victims' major role in the occurrence of cybercrimes. The survey will continue until January 31.
Taking part in the poll on the Ministry of Interior's website, 598 (44%) respondents “completely agreed” that the victim has a major role in the occurrence of cybercrimes, especially crimes of blackmail or extortion.
As many as 389 (28%) people agreed with the statement “to certain extent” and 163 (12%) respondents agreed with it. The total number of respondents voted in favour of statement thus reaches 1,150.
The respondents who disagreed with the statement and do not hold victims responsible for cybercrimes are just 146 making an 11% of the available sample while 69 (5%) people said that they do not know.
This trend indicates that the majority of people is very much aware of IT related technicalities and knows that the cybercrimes could not be committed by culprits if the victims had taken precautionary measures to ensure reduction of exploitation space to near zero.
Recently, Lieutenant-Colonel Ali Hassan Al Kubaisi, Head of Economic Crimes Combating Section at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ministry of Interior, also asked people to be aware of modern ways of cybercrimes and adopt precautionary measures to save themselves from potential cybercrime threats. The Ministry of Interior is also educating residents on cybercrimes, particularly blackmailing using its social media accounts.
“Common tricks used by cybercriminals include developing online friendship with potential victims through fake IDs. Cybercriminals then get them involved in online video chats and calls, which are recorded without victim's knowledge. It will be followed by blackmailing their victims with threats to send the videos to their friends/families or publish them online. Another method is to reach the victim's contents such as photos by getting illegal access to PCs and mobile phones of the victim,” the Ministry of Interior warned people in some of its recent tweets.
The Ministry has also advised people to not hesitate in reporting cybercrimes and blackmailing by visiting CID headquarters at Duhail or by via Metrash2 (CID/reports).
