"There is no system like digital arrest in the law, this is just fraud, deceit, lie, a gang of criminals and those who are doing this are enemies of the society," the PM cautioned
Putting the victim under fear that her mobile number was being misused by cyber fraudsters and thus she was also booked for a money laundering and would be arrested for the same, they made her transfer the money into their bank accounts.
According to the cybercrime police, the victim was lured by a WhatsApp message by the scammers who claimed to be executives of a company which specialized in enhancing the click-through rates of Instagram videos.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner CV Anand appreciated the efforts and proactive response of the bank officials and cybercrime staff in preventing the fraud and saving the victims and felicitated them.
The union minister said cybercrime has emerged as a major challenge and asked the IPS officer trainees to lead the endeavour to address the challenge with technical expertise.
“There is nothing like digital arrest in the law. If anybody tells you that you are digitally arrested, please report it to the cyber crime wing or the nearest police station immediately,” he advised
The 80-year-old victim, a retired employee, loses nearly Rs.22 lakh to a fraudster on the pretext of police verification and helping her evade a police case.
An amount of Rs.17.25 crore was swindled by fraudsters into their accounts through different types of cybercrime. The district police's cybercrime wing has prevented diversion of swindled money worth Rs 2.44 crore by freezing the bank accounts concerned, according to officials.
DSP Venugopal Reddy suggests victims to register a complaint within minutes after losing the amount by calling 1930 or by raising a complaint on cybercrime.gov.in.
CM Revanth reddy directs officials to set a pre-condition to filmmakers to provide a video of one or two minutes duration to the government to promote awareness on drugs and cybercrime when they approach the government to hike ticket prices.
The 31 year-old complainant from Amberpet working for a reputed software firm lost Rs. 18 lakh to a cyber fraudster who impersonated as an executive of a courier agency.