Srinagar: Coming to the rescue of the people whose money gets fraudulently stolen by cyber scammers, the Union Home Ministry has set up a dedicated helpline and promised that the recovered amount would be returned within 24 hours.
The cyber scamming victim has to make a call on the Helpline No 155260 the moment he or she is bullied by online fraudsters.
“The moment we get the call, the money stolen will be blocked,” the MHA officials said in a video message on Wednesday. “We will try to return the money into the same bank account within 24 hours.”
The officials said that people on the helpline would ask for details but not the PIN of the card or UPI or other money transition applications.
“If somebody asks for a PIN, then it is a fraud,” they said.
The helpline and its subsequent functioning has been conveyed to all the banks operating across the country.
“Until now crores of rupees have been returned to victims through this dedicated helpline,” they said.
Besides, victims can lodge their complaint on the website of National Crime Portal.
“Never share your OTP with someone,” this warning is always shared by cybercrime officials to make people aware of cyber frauds carried out by asking for a one-time-password (OTP) via call, SMS, or email.
“But what if we tell you that even without sharing OTP you can get trapped,” they said.
In a recent cyber fraud, a man from Delhi lost Rs 50 lakh through missed calls. Notably, the fraudsters didn’t ask him about any OTP yet made several transactions across the victim’s multiple accounts.
There have been several such instances in J&K when cyber scammers have stolen money from gullible people.
However, J&K Cyber Police have been successful in retrieving the money and returning it to the victims.
J&K has fully working Cyber Police Stations and victims in large numbers are coming forward with complaints.
Although the report for year 2022 has so far not been released, according to the NCRB report ‘Crime in India – 2021’, a total of 154 cases of cybercrimes were reported in the J&K police stations in 2021, witnessing an increase of 28.33 percent compared to the previous year.
J&K recorded 120 cases of cybercrimes in 2020 and 73 in 2019.
The report reveals that the cybercrime rate has increased by around 110 percent during the last two years from 2019 to 2021 in J&K.
While J&K saw 83 “computer-related offences” in 2021, 45 cases were reported under Section 67, which is publication or transmission of obscene or sexually explicit acts in the electronic form.
The report contains statistical information on cognisable crimes as reported in police stations during the reference year.
SSP Cyber Crime Investigation Sandeep Chaudhary had last year issued a video statement warning people against cybercrimes, particularly against ‘sextortion’.