The Kashimira Police have set up a mechanism to help recover money lost to online frauds. The cops helped two persons get back a collective amount of Rs18.4 lakh within three days. The complainants were duped through different modes like fake websites to book online cab and offering work-from-home opportunities.
Details of the cases
In the first case, the 64-year-old complainant faced a double whammy after Rs31.4 lakh was siphoned from her fixed deposits through unauthorised electronic transactions after she used the online search engine to book a cab to Pune. In the process, she got in touch with a helpline number uploaded on a phoney website controlled by cyber criminals, who sent her link and induced her to click on it.
However, when the caller asked for the grid number of her debit card, she got suspicious and not only disconnected the call, but immediately alerted the bank to block her account along with other access channels such as credit/debit card and net banking. Yet the complainant was shocked to receive a series of one-time passwords (OTP) on her registered mobile number. Minutes later, Rs31.4 lakh was siphoned from her account. To add to her woes, she received a call from a person who identified himself as the representative of another bank in which she had an account. The caller, under the guise of getting her pan card updated, sent a link and made fraudulent withdrawals amounting to Rs10 lakh.
The other case involved fraud of Rs8.50 lakh under the guise of offering lucrative earnings on a work-from-home job envisaging liking online videos and rating hotels and movies. After continuous follow-ups with the banks concerned, the cops managed to freeze Rs9.9 lakh and Rs8.5 lakh in the first and second case, respectively. The amount was reversed to the account of the complainants following judicial orders.
