Vijayawada: Cybercrime cracked in one hour, victim gets back 48,761

Vijayawada: City Cybercrime police cracked the cyber fraud case in one hour after receiving the complaint and helped the victim get back her money of Rs 48,761.

According to cybercrime police, a SBI customer in one town transferred Rs 5,000 to her friend through Google Pay app on July 23. But, she received a message that the transaction was declined.

She later went to the SBI and enquired about the transaction. But, the bank staff suggested them to contact the Google Pay since it is UPI transaction. Later, the woman tried to contact the Google Pay customer care number to find out the transaction. The money was debited from her account. She noticed one number and contacted to get information about the Rs 5,000 money transfer transaction to her friend.

But, the number she noticed in Google was not related to Google Pay customer care. But, a cybercriminal has uploaded his number stating it is Google Pay customer care number. The person who contacted the woman customer had asked bank account details and made her believe that he was the Google Pay customer care staff.

The SBI customer trusted the person and informed some details. After some time, Rs 48,761 was debited from her account. Suspecting foul play, she immediately visited cybercrime police in the city and lodged a complaint on how she was cheated by the cybercriminal.

Circle Inspector K Sivaji immediately responded and noticed that the culprit had cheated her by giving his phone number as Google Pay customer care number and helped her get back Rs 48,761. Cyber police station inspector Sivaji suggested bank customers not to trust unknown persons and give details of bank accounts.

He suggested to the customers to go the banks personally to enquire the transactions or to get other information. He also suggested that it is not safe to look for the customer care phone numbers of some companies or organisations on Google because the criminals have uploaded their mobile numbers on the pretext of customer care numbers and they may cleverly dupe by contacting customers on phone. He said the cybercrimes were increasing since the lockdown was announced in the country and the people should be aware of the activities of the criminals and be cautious with them. He said cybercriminals were adopting innovative ways to rob customers and have been trying to target gullible people/customers.