Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Cyber frauds being executed on popular messaging applications have wiped off as much as Rs 17.95 crore from the bank accounts of Bhopalites in 1,124 instances. Notably, cybercrime menace on apps has been rampant from the past two years, but senior cybercrime officials seem to not care two hoots to curb the menace. Nowadays, crooks have adapted a new modus operandi on several apps to dupe youngsters.
They have been contacting young boys on the apps and sending pictures of women purportedly working as models for them. The crooks pose the offer before them to arrange a meet-up with the woman and demand money in exchange for the same. No sooner does the money reach the crook, they delete their account on the apps and go incommunicado. A total of 27 such instances have been reported in the past three months in the city, in which young boys have ended up losing as much as Rs 4.8 lakh.
‘Operators of some apps based overseas’
Police personnel at the city cyber cell said the operators and officials of the applications are based in Russia and other foreign countries. They added that numerous times, emails have been written to them with regard to the irregularities of the application, but no response has been received.
‘PHQ will be informed soon’
Assistant commissioner of police (Cyber) Sujeet Tiwari commented on the issue, stating that he will soon write to the police headquarters (PHQ) with regard to the app menace, from where the information will be sent to the state government. “An action is expected after that,” he added.