MALKANGIRI: The cyber cell of Malkangiri police has started refunding complainants who were duped by fraud telecallers from outside the district in the last few months.
Of the six cases of fraud amounting to Rs 3 lakh registered with it, the cyber cell has refunded Rs 2 lakh to three victims. The next step is to trace the fake callers and arrest them, said Malkangiri SP Jagmohan Meena.
He said one Kailash Chandra Dhakad was asked for his ATM card number during a call received in February this year. The unknown caller claimed to be a bank employee and told Kailash that his card had been blocked.
“Kailash panicked and shared his ATM card details to unblock his card only to find out later that Rs 80,000 was siphoned off from his bank account,” said Meena.
The SP said a similar call was received by a local Manik Goldar where he was asked to share his ATM card number, PIN and OTP with the unidentified caller.
“Goldar found that Rs 48,000 was missing from his account within minutes of sharing the details,” he said.
The third case is related to Tarak Patra, a resident of Kalimela, who lost his cancellation dues for an air ticket from Chennai to Hyderabad which he had booked on online travel portal MakeMyTrip.
Dhakad said he is glad to have received a refund of Rs 70,000 after he lost Rs 80,000. Goldar said he received Rs 22,000 of the Rs 48,000 which was siphoned off from his bank account.
Cyber cell sources said four other cases of fraud to the tune of Rs 5,68,550 are being investigated.
The SP said such cases are on the rise in the district. He appealed to the public not to share their debit card numbers, OTP and PIN with unknown callers as banks never ask for them.