BHUBANESWAR: The Cyber Crime and Economic Offence police station here has received 3,660 complaints related to financial and social media frauds between January and September this year.
The total money swindled by online scamsters stood at a whopping Rs 68.79 crore of which police managed to freeze more than Rs 11.86 crore. Police refunded Rs 1.40 crore to the victims in the last nine months and also arrested 24 cyber frauds.
In September, police refunded Rs 49 lakh to several victims of cyber frauds. “At least Rs 21 lakh was recovered from investment-related frauds last month, Rs 4.49 lakh regarding fake KYC updates and Rs 5 lakh from dubious investment trading schemes,” said a police officer.
As part of the investigation into the cases registered between January and September, police teams were sent to West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, New Delhi, Assam and Chhattisgarh.
As the cyber crimes continue to rise exponentially, police cautioned citizens not to be part of any WhatsApp or Telegram group which are engaged to lure people to invest in fake trading applications.