Cyberfraud victim calls national helpline, asked to call during office hours

The national cybercrime reporting portal, however, states that the helpline is available 24×7.

An FIR was registered with the Pelhar police on February 26 based on the complaint of the man who allegedly lost Rs 1.24 lakh from his account. As per the FIR, on February 25, he was asked to update his Yono app linked with his State Bank of India (SBI) account by an alleged fraudster who sent him a phishing link and swindled the money in multiple transactions.

On receiving alerts from the bank, he realised he was cheated and immediately called the SBI customer care number, as per the FIR. An SBI official informed the farmer that he had been cheated and asked him to call the national cybercrime helpline number 1930 to save his money, said the FIR.

The farmer told the police that he called the helpline number 1930 around 9.44 pm. “I called the helpline number 1930 and narrated the entire incident to which the man on the helpline replied that their office was closed and asked me to call the next day. As it was too late in the night, I went to the police station the next day,” the complainant told the police.

The 1930 helpline was launched last June by the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal which comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs. The website provides a web page enabling victims of financial cyberfraud to feed details related to banking transactions and freeze the bank account to which the money is transferred.

The helpline has been provided for those who do not have access to the internet or are unable to follow the procedure on their own. However, due to a lack of resources, the helpline is not running 24×7.