Bhubaneswar: The cyber fraudsters continue to dupe citizens from across the state of lakhs everyday under various pretexts. The cyber help desk opened at the office of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) has received 476 calls from victims from various parts of the state who lost their money to such criminals in April.
According to the data shared by the Commissionerate Police, the cyber fraudsters duped Rs 1, 19, 63,297 from 476 victims in April only.
However, the actual amount whisked away by the fraudsters would be several times more since many people are unaware of the help desk in the state. The desk exclusively investigates fraud cases reported by denizens of the Bhubaneswar Urban Police District (UPD) only.
As many as 220 victims from Bhubaneswar, who sought help of the desk, reported the loss of Rs 74,05,114 to the fraudsters last month. The cybercriminals duped 156 people, including 68 from Bhubaneswar, through various Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platforms.
As many as 80 persons have been duped by the unknown fraudsters who promised to provide various credit card and ATM related services in April. The criminals have illegally withdrawn money from 55 persons of the city through the above modus operandi.
Meanwhile, the help desk managed to refund and block the transfer of money to the tune of Rs 5,36,140 after receiving complaints through the helpline number issued by the Commissionerate Police.
A total of 11 cases have been registered in this regard in April.
PNN