With cyber crimes on the rise, the Kolkata police is mulling setting up a police station exclusively to deal with such complaints.

"Apart from a cyber crime cell of the city police, which was set up a couple of years back, an exclusive cyber police station is in the process of being set up to handle the ever-rising cases," DC (Detective Department) Damayanti Sen said.

The investigation into the new-age crimes required skill as it is different from a routine criminal inquiry, the senior official emphasised.

"There has been a phenomenal rise in obscene e-mails, credit card frauds, hacking of net surfers' profiles, identity theft and even child pornography," a senior official of the cyber cell told PTI.

He said the cell received annually around 50 complaints of offensive e-mails and as many other complaints, including frauds, less than half of which are formally registered, the cyber cell officer said.

Citing some cases, he said a woman researcher was let off with warning after morphing the image of her divorcee female colleague due to professional jealousy in 2008.

An executive was chargesheeted for posting morphed nude pictures of women last year.

A city businessman late last year was defrauded of several lakhs of rupees after being befriended by a Senegalese woman during an Internet chat and a Nigerian accomplice of the woman was arrested in the city. .

The cell also successfully cracked a bogus online lottery which fooled a man to cough up Rs 5.5 lakh even though the gang sent mails from different e-mail addresses. A key member of the gang, a woman from Delhi, was arrested.

"We have launched a separate website cybercampaign.net to generate awareness about cyber crimes and cyber laws and also tell victims where to lodge complaints," the official said.

In a role similar to that of citizen journalists in electronic media, any citizen can report cyber crime cases at this site by filling up an online form seeking antecedents of the sender.

"If necessary, we can work on the lead and get back to the person whose identity can be protected," the official said.

To save young persons from the grip of cyber predators, the Kolkata police has organized awareness campaigns about cyber crimes in two premier city schools as children, girls in particular, often fall prey to the fraud.

"We suggest not to open the net before a stranger or give personal details, besides changing passwords regularly," the cyber official said.