Golden Hour reporting of Cyber crime thwarts Sixty lakhs fraud
Swift action by the Cyber Crime Helpline at the Telangana State Cyber Security Bureau(TSCSB) prevented Sixty lakhs of fraud money falling into the hand of scamsters.
Going further into the details, the victim received a call from an unknown number. The caller impersonating as an officer of Maharashtra police and accused her of involvement in a major money laundering offense, and claimed that a warrant was pending against her.
“Subsequently the Fraudster forced the victim to be on skype video call throughout the entire night and kept threatening her of dire consequences. Out of fear and following the fraudster’s instruction the victim transferred Rs. 60 Lakhs to the account mentioned by the unknown persons next morning” said Shikha Goel Director of TSCSB in an official statement.
“After transferring the amount, the victim realised that she was scammed and immediately called the cybercrime helpline number 1930. The Cyber Crime Helpline at the TS Cyber Security Bureau immediately uploaded the transaction details on CFCFRMS portal, alerted SBI bank to which the amount was fraudulently transferred and ensured that the entire amount of Rs. 60 Lakhs was put on hold within one hour”, said TSCSB in an official statement.
Further Shikha Goel added that this is an example of swift action by the victim in reporting the crime on 1930 within the golden hour and timely response of the 1930 helpline staff in alerting the concerned banks and intercepting the fraudulent money from going into the hands of suspects, resulting in saving the entire amount.
Earlier Cyberabad police issued a detailed advisory explaining the modus operandi on these kinds of cyber crimes. Cyberabad police cautioned that “Cyber fraudsters lure citizens by making false accusations and threaten to implicate them in money laundering cases. They create impersonated police IDs, letters with government agency letterheads, and forward them to victims. In some conversations, the fraudsters demand victims to furnish bank account statements and credentials to verify financial transactions in the account and frighten them”.
And in recent times, police say that there is a surge in these kinds of scams and caution the public about such deceptive frauds. Most of the potential targets of these frauds were well educated and software employees, added Cyberabad police.
The Telangana police advised the public that no police or Government agencies make video/ Skype calls to any person. If they receive any such calls they should not respond. Also, Police or Government agencies never ask for transfer of any amount by any means. If any member of public receives any such calls/requests they should immediately inform us on 1930 or cybercrime.gov.in.