THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Cyber scammers swindled Keralites out of Rs 201 crore last year, state police headquarters said. As many as 23,753 people were conned and only 20% of the money was retrieved.
Most scammers indulged in fraud by running fake trading websites. Nearly Rs 74 crore was lost by 3,394 people in this manner. The cyber wing identified 5,107 bank accounts, 3,289 mobile phone numbers, 239 social media accounts and 945 websites involved in fraud and blocked them.
In the past week, Rs 2.60 crore was swindled from an Ernakulam native, while an Aluva native lost Rs 1.10 crore. Kozhikode and Alappuzha natives lost Rs 50 lakh each. Scammers tout victims via social media by offering huge returns on investment. Those who evince interest are added to various Telegram groups and persuaded into investing money. Initially, scammers pay them returns to earn their trust. Later they press the victims to invest more. The victims are informed of their presumptive profits, without being given access to the money. Later, scammers direct them to pay a hefty amount as tax and service charge. This amount is also siphoned off.
Police say delay in reporting financial crimes, within the stipulated two hours, results in loss of money. If a crime is reported within two hours, on the the number ‘1930’, then there is a high chance of officers being able to freeze the accounts to which the amounts have been deposited. In most of the cases, complaints were filed several days later.