Spurt in online frauds in Hyderabad city

Hyderabad: There is a spurt in online fraud cases this year in the city when compared to last year, 316 cases were booked against 40 cases last year.

According to the cyber crime officials, they could solve 16 out of the 316 cases. As many as 44 cases booked over staking SMS (bulk sms) email and calls, 132 cases relate to online job frauds, 15 cases booked for data theft, and 23 for hacking websites.

Modus operandi

Speaking to The Hans India, N Mohan Rao, Inspector of Police (Social Media), Hacking Unit, Cyber Crime Police station, said, "Fraudsters send a message or an email posing as a bank employee or from a reputed organisation claiming that the recipient won a huge lottery amount and a few people fall in this trap."

The fraudsters then tell the victims that they would receive a link through an SMS or an email. When the recipients click on it, the incoming SMS into the phone is automatically transferred to the fraudsters phone, who then trick victims into carrying money transfers their accounts, saying a fee or tax needs to be paid. The cybercrime police trace only 16 fraudsters at present.

In some cases, to win the trust of the victim, the fraudsters sometimes send credit links and even deposit Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 in the victims account. Following that, they send a debit link which customers do not notice, and end up losing big amounts.

Most of the suspects of these cybercrimes are traced back to Delhi West Bengal, and Mumbai. Once they receive the money they transfer it into multiple accounts, making it difficult to recover it. "Our officials have kept a tab on all social media platforms to make sure that they can take notice and tackle situations when they arise," added Mohan.