Vijayapura: In one of the significant developments in solving cases of cybercrime and online fraud, the district police have cracked 31 cases and recovered Rs. 24.45 lakh from the cheaters.
Informing about this at a press conference on Wednesday September 14, SP H. D. Anand Kumar said that cyber crimes are on the rise across the State including Vijayapura District. A total of 31 people became victims of online fraud in the last year. The victims have lost money worth Rs 39.99 lakhs. Of the total victims, many of them fell for either phishing or wishing online scams.
“We had formed a special team to investigate these cases under the cyber-crime police station. The team has carried out an intensive investigation and succeeded in recovering Rs. 24.45 lakh. Among the 31 cases, 11 of them were reported in the Cyber Economic and Narcotics (CEN) Crime Police Station, where people had lost Rs 28.96 lakhs. In the investigation, the police recovered Rs. 15.32 lakh and returned it to the respective owners on the court orders.”
“In 2022, as many as 10 petitions of online fraud of Rs. 6.15 lakh were reported. The police carried out the investigation and recovered Rs. 4.5 lakhs. On the orders of the court, the recovered sum has been transferred to the respective owners. Another 10 cases of online fraud of Rs. 4.87 lakhs were reported at National Cyber Crime Portal, where 4.62 lakh recovered and handed over to the owners,” elaborated SP Anand Kumar.
When asked about the culprits, SP Anand Kumar pointed out, “The offenders indulging are experts in cybercrime as they don’t leave any trace. They operate phone calls from a fake identity card and use virtual locations to prevent themselves from being exposed. However, efforts are underway to nab the culprits. It is one of the herculean tasks to nab the online fraudsters.”
“The people have to be more cautious than the policemen because the offender’s targets are common people. People have to be cautious while uploading their details on social networking sites. I appeal to people to either lock their profile details on social media or enable the privacy mode. Apart from this, people should not give their details on any random calls. The awareness in this regard is being carried out. If people are cautious enough then there are very slim chances of getting conned by online fraudsters,” appealed SP Anand Kumar.
