Cops recover money after 3 duped of `1 cr in cybercrime

In just 24 hours, Mumbai police’s crime branch managed to recover Rs1.02 crore that three persons lost in cyber crimes, officials said on Friday.

The complainants, residents of Kandivali, Bandra and Borivali, reached out to the police through the 1930 Cyber Helpline number on April 25. The complainants from Kandivali and Bandra were duped on the pretext of handsome returns after investment in share trading and ended up losing crores of their money. Meanwhile, the Borivali-based victim was cheated in a courier scam case.

The police contacted the nodal officer of the banks to freeze the amount and the transactions worth

Rs1,02,66,095 were put on hold, the police said.

With rising share trading fraud, police subsequently issued guidelines for citizens where it advised them to avoid downloading share trading apps through any kind of .apk files, and further advised them to check the authenticity of the website.

“Cybercriminals induce victims to send money to various individual bank accounts while no genuine company registered under the National Stock Exchange or Bombay Stock Exchange would ask for remittance via individual bank accounts,” the guidelines said.

For FedEx or other courier-related scams, the guidelines advise citizens to be wary of calls from cyber frauds posing as representatives of reputed courier companies claiming irregular transactions. The victims are told that their bank transactions are linked to drugs, murder, etc, in order to intimidate them, an official said. The fraudsters threaten victims, telling them that they will be arrested by police officers, income tax officers or any government/enforcement agencies. Citizens are advised to immediately report to the nearest police station.