Cybercrime rampant in city, cops caution people

Chennai: Cyber criminals have filched several crore rupees from high networth individuals by dropping the names of CBI, ED and TRAI in the past few months across Tamil Nadu. However, whenever complaints were lodged quickly and alerts were received ontime, the state's cybercrime wing managed to stop the transfer of the money to the accounts of cyber frauds and retrieved them.
An official statement from the wing said on Monday that a special team of cops arrested Ramesh Bhai Badabhi Bhogra and agents Paresh Narshibhai and Vivek from Surat in Gujarat after the managed to extort more than Rs 1 crore from a city resident. They contacted the victim saying a parcel booked in his name had narcotic drugs and threatened that unless the money was transferred the person could be arrested by Mumbai police.
In another incident, the police team retrieved Rs.1.2 crore from the fraudsters who used Trai's name to extort the money.
The Chennai city cybercrime wing police also retrieved Rs 2.6 crore by swiftly acting on the complaints before the money was transferred to other fake bank accounts in the past three days.
In one incident, a conman posed as a TRAI staff member and cheated a retired IAS officer, who transferred Rs 90 lakh to a bank account. However, as the ex-bureaucrat realised that he had been conned, he approached the cybercrime officials in the commissioner's office and lodged a complaint. Cops blocked the money transfer process and retrieved all the money.
In another incident, a 78-year-old woman, Saraswathi from Kottivakkam, was conned to believe that she had been digitally arrested, and forced her to transfer Rs 3 crore. On her ocmplaint, the cybercrime managed to block transfer of Rs 1 crore and retrieve it.
In yet another incident, fraudsters lured Shanmugam, 67, of Anna Nagar East, into an online trading scam and forced him to transfer Rs 3.7 crore. On Shanmugam's complaint cybercrime officials retrieved Rs 57 lakh from the bank account.
A cybercrime wing officer people should avoid such traps in the first place. They could also complain over the helpline, 1930. They have also suggested two-factor authentication on sensitive accounts for an added layer of security. Such incidents can be reported to ‘1930' or www.cybercrime.gov.in.
Police estimate that during the past eight months alone, over Rs 132 crore has been extorted from unsuspecting victims in the city.