People lost Rs 470 crore to cyber frauds this year

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Over 12,615 cases related to online fraud have been registered across various police stations in the last nine months, City Police Commissioner B Dayananda said on Tuesday.

He said that the investigation officers have detected eight different patterns in the cyber crime cases. A report shared by the Bengaluru Police showed that the people have lost a whopping Rs 470 crore to cyber frauds reported between January to September in the city this year.

"The investigating officers froze an amount of Rs 201 crore from different bank accounts and managed to recover Rs 28.4 crore. Out of these recovered funds, more than Rs 27.6 crore has been returned to the victims," said Dayananda.

People fell prey to various forms of cybercrimes, mainly targeting their online payment gateways and bank accounts. Social media platforms have also been used to cheat people financially and otherwise.

The report shared by the police also showed 18 common patterns of cyber frauds that were detected by the officers during the probe. Frauds related to online jobs, debit/credit card, business opportunity scams, Gifts Fraud and Frauds related to Social Media topped the list.

"Due to the popularity and ease of online payments, now even a pushcart seller has a digital payment gateway. A huge number of people also use social media platforms. However this hasn’t been coupled with digital literacy, making them more prone to cyber fraudsters," the city top cop said.

However, he further said that compared to previous years, reporting of cyber crimes has also shot up this year.

The Bengaluru Police Commissioner assured that the Karnataka Police Department is keen to impart new-age cybersecurity training to the police to equip them with more advanced skills and technology.