The Kerala Police on Saturday recovered ₹2.71 lakh stolen from a bank account through cyber fraud in less than an hour after a complaint was put up.
The cyber wing of the police acted swiftly and cleverly to bring back the ₹2.71 lakh to a State Bank of India (SBI) account holder who lost the money when he was deceived into click on a phishing link.
The man hailing from Tirur had responded to an innocuous message that reached his phone purportedly from the SBI asking him for updating KYC (Know Your Customer). Soon after he unwittingly clicked on the phishing link around 8.30 a.m. on Saturday, ₹2.71 lakh was deducted from his account by the cyber fraudsters.
The man alerted the Cyber Helpline at 1930 about the fraud at 10.13 a.m. The police said they got the complaint within the golden hour (within two hours) after the fraud. The agility of the police’s cyber wing helped them recover the lost money at 11.09 a.m., in less than an hour.
The police said they were after the fraudsters. However, the physical distantness of the perpetrators of the online crime posed a challenge for the police in laying their hands on them. An investigation was on.
A social media post by the Kerala Police said on Saturday that the number of people falling prey to online frauds was on the increase in spite of enhanced awareness programmes.
Warning
The police warned the people against responding to suspicious messages through SMS, email, WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram. “Never click on such links. Always be suspicious,” said the police.
The police warned that such messages might have dangerous phishing links embedded in them and such links could help the perpetrators get the complete personal data of the user.
“Never respond to messages from anyone asking for money or bank details. Banks will never tell you to give account details,” said the police.
The Facebook post alerted the people about the importance of the golden hour, that is the first two hours after the fraud. One should complain to 1930 or register the complaint at www.cybercrime.gov.in as soon as possible, said the police.
