Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The city cyber cell on Thursday revealed that of the 51 cyber criminals nabbed by them in the first eight months of the year, 23 are graduates, implying that close to 45 per cent of them are well educated. The cyber cell also revealed the figures pertaining to the amount of money duped, amount frozen and the amount returned to the complainants, which hinted that the cyber cops have not been faring well in the same.
In 2022, Bhopalites were duped of Rs 17.15 crore, out of which, the cyber cops had frozen as much as Rs 48.9 lakh, and returned Rs 1.25 crore to the complainants. In 2023, the city residents were duped to the tune of Rs 24.35 crore. The amount frozen by the cyber cell officials amounted to Rs 45.65 lakh and the amount returned to the complainants was Rs 49.17 lakh, almost half of what was returned in 2022.
Come 2024, in the first eight months of the year, Bhopalites have been duped of Rs 26.46 lakh. Of this, Rs 25.72 lakh has been frozen and Rs 30.13 lakh returned to the complainants. The cyber cell officials attributed the dip in the amount frozen by them and the amount returned to the complainants to the delay by the people in lodging complaints.
They said that some people do not report frauds owing to hesitation and some of them report it after a period of 15-20 days, and by then, the crooks transfer the duped money to numerous bank accounts, and it becomes difficult to trace them.
‘Inform cops at the earliest’
Cyber cell ACP Sujeet Tiwari told Free Press that numerous times, the cyber cell has issued advisories to the general public, in which it has said that in case anyone falls prey to a cyber fraud, he/she must report it to the cyber cell within half an hour. Owing to this, it becomes easy for the cyber cell to freeze the amount, and return it to the victim.
