Cyber crimes on the rise in Mysuru, over 125 FIRs filed in 6 months

MYSURU: A 20-year-old student lost Rs 80,000 after she dialled phone numbers shown on search engines while browsing the internet looking for a job. Within a few days, the callers promised her a job as ground staff in an airline in January and then received money multiple times online before blocking her.
Similarly, a group of callers swindled a 32-year-old homemaker who was looking for a job of about Rs 13 lakh in May by promising her a job. She has lodged a complaint with the cyber police.
Last year, a teacher of about 60 years lost her savings to the tune of Rs 40 lakh hoping to receive a valuable gift and one-lakh pounds from her ‘friend’ on a matrimonial site. The caller deceived her by saying she has to pay charges to the airport authorities to receive the gifts, and an unsuspecting teacher sent money. Within a month after befriending her, the fraudsters swindled her money. She filed a complaint a week later in October.
A businessperson lost Rs 1.2 lakh to online fraudsters who promised to deliver him an e-scooter at his doorstep. This happened soon after he searched for the scooter online.
These are only a few of the complaints received by the Cyber, Economic and Narcotics (CEN) police stations from the residents of Mysuru city. People were also cheated by offering loans on certain mobile applications and real estate sites wherein victims were lured with attractive offers.
An officer said despite awareness and caution issued by city police about cyber frauds, the number of online frauds continues to rise in Mysuru city. During the first half of the year, about 130 FIRs were lodged with the CEN police station. The majority of cases are related to cheating in the name of providing loans, jobs, gifts, and free offers.
City police have helped some of the complainants to get their lost money back as they approached police immediately after being cheated. But most of the complainants delay in reporting crimes and hence find it difficult to block the accounts of cheaters who operate from remote places. Cyber crime is a problem of not just one city but of the entire nation, the officer stated.
Recently, city crime branch police investigating multi-crore frauds done under different fake solar power firms appealed to victims to provide information of cheating as many haven’t come forward to report online crimes.
Kulasekara CS, a retired bank manager, said if anyone knows money is drawn from his or her account fraudulently, they should immediately approach competent authority and raise a complaint to block such disputed transactions. Banks always keep cautioning their customers through messages asking them not to share OTPs with anyone over the phone yet people continue to ignore and land in trouble, he added.