Cyber Crime: Residents Lose Rs 30 Cr In 6 Months Through 'Play Games & Earn Money' System

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The city is in grip of cyber crooks. Data sourced from the district cyber crime revealed that local residents lost Rs 30 crore to cyber fraudsters in first six months (January to June) of 2024. Earlier, the cyber cell had revealed that 60 people were arrested by them in the same duration. Senior cyber crime officials said fraudsters operated from two states from where no crooks were arrested earlier.

Officials said most accused belong to Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Adding to statements, officials said cyber crooks coined a new way of duping people by asking them to play games and earn money. The people fell prey to the offer, which backfired and wiped off money from their bank accounts.

As part of modus operandi, crooks sent SMSs to target persons and no sooner do they click on the link, their money was siphoned off from their bank accounts. The people were being lured into playing poker and betting games, officials added. Apart from gaming frauds, the frauds on pretext of investing money in share trading and OTP-based deception are still rampant.

Housewives, elderly primary target of cyber crooks

Assistant police commissioner (cyber cell) Sujeet Tiwari told Free Press that in majority of cases, people falling prey to cyber crooks and losing money were housewives, elderly people who possessed less knowledge about not sharing bank-related information with unknown people.

Banking & telecom security needs to be ramped up

Deputy police commissioner Akhil Patel said telecom security, banking sector services needed to be ramped up to tackle rising cyber crimes.