Victims refunded Rs. 4.58 lakh

Mysore/Mysuru: The District Cybercrime, Economic Offences and Narcotics (CEN) Police have solved seven cases of online fraud in two months and have successfully frozen the bank accounts of the fraudsters, forcing them to return the money that was siphoned off from the victims.

Cybercrime cases in the city had seen a surge amidst Coronavirus lockdown and cases have not come down despite the pandemic petering out. A closer examination in the jump in cybercrime reveals that criminals have proven effective at exploiting the gullible citizens taking advantage of their lack of awareness and have meddled with their bank accounts.

Notably, all these complaints were filed soon after the fraud was committed and this enabled the Police to crack the cases and also issue refunds worth Rs. 4,58,500. Refund worth Rs. 2,44,250 is yet to be initiated but the cases have been detected and the victims will soon get the conned money.

These victims lost their money to cyber criminals after sharing their OTPs (One Time Passwords) and their bank account details. Fraudsters promised them online rewards, lotteries and through phishing they got access to their bank accounts and polished off their                      hard-earned money.

According to the data provided by the Police, Ugren Singh lost Rs. 1,98,000 to the fraudsters and he got the money back after CEN Police intervened. Likewise, Spoorthi, who lost Rs. 1,34,000, Ramya, who was conned 26,500 and Ambrose, who was cheated of Rs. 1,00,000 have got their money back.

Another victim, Shivaram, who was cheated of Rs. 47,500 has to get the money refunded after the approval from the Court. Similarly, Somam Boral has to get back Rs. 1,00,000 and Ravi Neelakantappa has to get Rs. 96,750 that they have lost to the cyber criminals.

The District CEN Police functions under the direct supervision of SP R. Chethan and Assistant SP R. Shivakumar. The unit is located near Jalapuri Quarters Number 226 that has been converted into CEN Station. The unit is headed by Inspector Shabbir Hussain. Krishnakanth Koli and Yeshwanth Kumar are SIs.

There are over 10 supporting employees who are internet savvy and have knowledge about cyber criminals, their modus operandi and the team is experienced in tracing the bank accounts to which the conned money is usually deposited. Inspector Shabbir Hussain told Star of Mysore that Police Constable Rangaswamy, who is a BE in Mechanical Engineering, is an asset to the CEN team and he has efficiently cracked many online fraud cases.