235 cybercrime complaints lodged in Mysuru in 2022

MYSURU: The Cyber, Economic, and Narcotics crime (CEN) police station of Mysuru city is flooded with complaints in the last ten months and the majority of cases are related to people losing money from their bank accounts after voluntarily compromising security features, by either revealing a one time password or clicking on doubtful links.
Even cases are being taken up against people for watching videos related to child pornography and cases are slapped on IP address holders following reports from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited children.
As on date, about 235 complaints have been registered, which according to officers of the CEN police station is the highest by any other law and order police station in Mysuru city.
Despite creating awareness among the public to take precautions while transacting money online or over phones, gullible bank account holders continue to fall victim to various tricks by fraudsters and end up losing their money. Officers claim in many cases victims have lost money in a hurry to make a quick buck online.
Three weeks previously a young engineer lost Rs 56.3 lakh cash after he heeded the request of a trickster and transferred his money to a web portal from a mobile application. He had opened a trading account on the app and had transferred his money from his account. Later the trickster remained incommunicado after which he lodged a complaint.
Another fraudster claiming to be a jawan won the trust of an institute proprietor and asked him to click on the link sent to his mobile number to receive a fee towards their children’s admission and then withdrew Rs 99k money in installments from the bank account. An officer said cases are going up and some are reporting crime late. In such cases getting back lost money is not possible.
Deputy commissioner of police (law and order) Pradeep Gunti said last year more than Rs 20 lakh was lost in online transactions which has been returned to bank account of the complainants due to the efforts of CEN police officers.
The more complaints are being registered due to awareness being brought about by our officers as people are coming forward to register complaints. “We (police) are educating the public about various frauds and people too should be cautious while transacting online and should not reveal security information to anyone,” he said.