Reach us quick, Telangana cops urge cyber fraud victims

Hyderabad: A complaint in time saves your money. Well, most of the time. The State police, especially the Cybercrime wings in the three Commissionerates in the capital region, are now focusing on recovering money stolen by fraudsters in cybercrime incidents, and the most crucial aspect here is to act before the cash reaches their bank […]

Hyderabad: A complaint in time saves your money. Well, most of the time.

The State police, especially the Cybercrime wings in the three Commissionerates in the capital region, are now focusing on recovering money stolen by fraudsters in cybercrime incidents, and the most crucial aspect here is to act before the cash reaches their bank accounts. For this, the police are trying to act immediately after a complaint is lodged, after which the action turns into a coordinated effort between the State Police and two facilities of the union Ministry of Home Affairs.

These are the MHA’s toll free cybercrime reporting helpline number, 1930, and the MHA’s web portal, https://cybercrime.gov.in.

These two facilities, according to officials, have been proving to be helpful in dealing with cyber crooks and recovering money stolen from bank accounts of cybercrime victims.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had made available the helpline and the reporting platform to help prevent financial losses due to cyber frauds. This serves as a bridge between the State police and banks for sharing online-fraud related information for taking real-time action. The network is operational round the clock.

“Through this, the money which was fraudulently transacted in online cheating cases is being stopped from reaching the hands of the fraudsters by tracking the money trail and stopping its further flow before it is withdrawn from bank accounts of the crooks,” an official said, adding that this mostly helps if the victim reaches out to the police within 24 hours of being cheated.

Apart from this, the police are sharing information on fraudsters nabbed across the State with their counterparts in other States to check their involvement there. If any link is found, the City Police are taking the suspects to other States where cases are booked and helping the investigation process so that these crooks remain in police custody and in jail for the maximum period.

“Whenever a cybercrime happens, the modus operandi and identity of the fraudsters are collected and shared with our counterparts in the State. Even before they file a bail petition, we are ensuring they are taken into custody by police for their involvement in other cases,” police said.

Officials say that when interstate cyber fraudsters from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar and Rajasthan among others are caught and put behind bars, it will act as deterrence to other gangs.

“While investigating cybercrime cases is a task, recovering the money from the fraudsters is a bigger challenge, wherein many times though the cases are solved, money lost is not returned to the victims, as they are immediately withdrawn by the crooks from the banks,” a senior official of the Cyberabad Cybercrime wing said.

The helpline and portal are helping in preventing money flow into the hands of fraudsters, he added.