Bhubaneswar: With lakhs of devotees set to arrive in Puri for Rath Yatra on July 16, the Odisha police are planning to turn the mega festival into a platform for cyber safety awareness.Police have rolled out a comprehensive initiative to shield pilgrims from online frauds. A specially designed awareness vehicle — named ‘Cyber Rath’ — will be flagged off from Bhubaneswar and travel to Puri carrying advisories and educational materials. It will reach out to pilgrims, tourists, hotel owners and locals with alerts on emerging digital threats.“The campaign will warn visitors against fake hotel booking portals, fraudulent tour packages, UPI and QR code scams, phishing sites, bogus donation links, digital arrest frauds and social media traps,” DGP Y B Khurania said.Devotees will be urged to report incidents immediately through the national cyber crime helpline 1930 or the national cyber crime reporting portal – cybercrime.gov.in.To bolster response, cyber cell officers with expertise in investigation and victim support will be stationed in Puri from Rath Yatra on July 16 till Niladri Bije on July 17. These teams will conduct awareness drives, coordinate with hotels, distribute pamphlets, assist victims of cyber fraud and facilitate registration of lost or stolen mobile phones through the central equipment identity register portal. They will also work closely with the social media monitoring unit to ensure swift takedown of fake websites, fraudulent pages and malicious content.A coordination meeting with the Puri hotel association has been planned to strengthen cooperation against fake booking frauds and encourage genuine accommodation providers to actively disseminate cyber safety advisories.“We have already blocked 212 fake hotel websites and 26 fraudulent webpages linked to Rath Yatra this year. In June alone, 50 fake portals and 26 pages were taken down,” IGP (crime branch) Sarthak Sarangi said.Police authorities have advised devotees to book accommodation only through verified sources, avoid payments to unknown accounts or UPI IDs, check website authenticity before transactions and refrain from scanning suspicious QR codes.
