More than 2,500 people have been duped of Rs 8.16 crore in banking and online frauds in Kolkata in the past year.
Police said they have been able to recover Rs 3.5 crore of the amount and return it to the victims.
Why do some duped people get their money back but others don’t?
The Telegraph found that in most cases where the victims got their money back, the fraud was reported to the police almost as soon as it happened.
A delay in reporting the matter to the police results in fraudsters transferring the amount from one account to another and at times even withdrawing it from an ATM, making it difficult for the police to recover the money, officers said.
“We received 2,500 complaints in 2021. The victims had lost Rs 8.16 crore. We have been able to recover Rs 3.5 crore,” said Bidisha Kalita, deputy commissioner, cyber cell at Lalbazar.
Any such fraud, she said, should be reported to the police at the earliest. “This increases chances of recovery,” Kalita said.
Once an online fraud is reported, the police contact the payment gateways through which the money has been transferred.
“When a fraudster transfers money from a victim’s account, it goes through multiple e-wallets created with pre-activated SIM cards (to hide the identity of the fraudster) and finally deposited in a bank account, usually opened with fictitious documents,” said an officer.
A long trail of online transfers is created to make it difficult for the police to reach the account where the money is finally deposited.
“It is very important that we get the complaint on time so that the money can be seized before it is withdrawn,” said an officer.
Officers of Gariahat police station in south Kolkata recently facilitated the recovery of Rs 4.9 lakh of the Rs 5 lakh that was swindled out of a resident of Mandeville Gardens through false claims that her SIM card was about to be blocked and she needed to click on a link to update her KYC.
A resident of Haridevpur on the southern fringes of Kolkata got back his Rs 56,000 that he lost after a man identifying himself as a bank official called him and convinced him to share the one-time passwords sent on his phone to have his credit card’s annual charges waived.
The matter was reported to the police immediately after the man lost the money.
Some victims allegedly delayed in filing complaints, giving fraudsters an opportunity to stay ahead of the police.
Sources said a city doctor who had reported a fraud of Rs 12 lakh a few days after he was duped is yet to get back the money.
Cop advice
Mistakes people commit after being duped
• Lose time trying to contact the fraudster, although every time the phone is found switched off
• Waste time trying to verify credentials of the caller. Ideally, this should be done before making any transaction
• Delay reporting the matter to police nAt times the fraud is not reported to police
What a victim of online fraud should do
• Block the ATM/credit card that has been compromised
• Report the matter to the local police station with screenshots of the fraudulent transactions
• To save time, one can also WhatsApp the complaint to the police station (in Kolkata)