Coimbatore: City folk seem to be more vulnerable to online fraudsters, who have looted several of them to the tune of Rs93.04 crore in the past 10 months. In the last year, online fraudsters could steal only Rs48.32 crore from the city folk.
In August, an octogenarian woman from Ramanathapuram received a WhatsApp video call from a person who introduced himself as an officer with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Mumbai, stating they had registered a case against her after they seized a parcel containing narcotic drugs, international SIM cards and fake passports being sent to her through FedEx courier.
The stranger shared with her a few bank account numbers, asking her to transfer all the cash in her bank accounts to the same to authenticate transactions. He told her that the amount would be returned immediately after the verification process was over. The elderly woman subsequently transferred Rs2.30 crore to the bank account numbers shared by the stranger. She, however, didn't receive the cash back as promised. When she realized that she was duped, she lodged a complaint with the city cybercrime police.
Like her, several other people in the city have fallen prey to the designs of online fraudsters.
City police commissioner V Balakrishnan said many people were being cheated by online fraudsters, despite spreading awareness about the modus operandi of scamsters and what one should do when contacted by strangers posing as law enforcement officers or online share market traders. "People should not trust strangers."
He said they had received 6,798 complaints related to online fraudsters in the past 10 months. "At least 512 of them were FedEx scams. While the city folk have lost Rs93.04 crore to the online fraudsters in the past 10 months, we have managed to freeze Rs49.25 crore in their bank accounts and retuned Rs10.34 crore to the victims. We also have arrested 41 people in connection with the cybercrime cases."
In 2023, the city cybercrime police had received 6,396 complaints of online financial fraud compared to 4,516 in 2022. "Last year, the victims had lost Rs48.32 crore to the online fraudsters against Rs13.86 crore in 2022. We froze Rs28.62 crore in the bank accounts of online fraudsters in 2023 and returned Rs2.23 crore to the victims. In 2022, we froze Rs2.18 crore (in the bank accounts of online fraudsters) and returned Rs81.34 lakh to the victims."
Balakrishnan said the online fraudsters were also targeting the people searching about share market and online trading on search engines. "The scamsters collect their details, contact them over phone and make them invest in online trading. The fraudsters would send an online link asking people to download a trading app. This fake app would display huge profits, luring people to invest more. People shouldn't fall prey to such tactics."
P A Arun, inspector, city cybercrime police station, said people must exercise caution against online fraudsters and refrain from sending money to people posing as CBI officers. "Now, online fraudsters are using the term ‘digital arrest' to threaten people and extort money. People should not panic if they receive such calls."