Mumbai Police have filed a staggering 3,883 cases of cybercrime in the first 11 months of 2023, which translates to an astounding 11 cases being filed every day during that period. The police have frozen bank accounts with a total of ₹26.48 crore that had been lost to cyber frauds through various means such as phishing attacks, online job scams, KYC update scams, OTP fraud, and sextortion, according to the cyber crime department of Mumbai Police.
Until now 936 people have been arrested in cybercrime cases
However, data on how much of the money was returned to the complainants in these cases was not readily available. As many as 936 people were arrested in connection with these cases by the police in the five cyber crime police stations, according to an official.
This comes in the wake of Mumbai Police launching a dedicated helpline, 1930, on May 17, 2022, to tackle the burgeoning problem of cybercrime. The launch of the helpline has also helped speed up action on cybercriminals.
Case reporting deadlines have been shortened
Earlier, a week would pass on average from the time a case was filed till it was verified and the matter reported to the bank. Now, the same process takes a few hours, and this often helps the police stop the transactions from being completed, with the cyber police quickly contacting the nodal officer of the bank concerned with a request to trace the deposited amount.
