Davanagere police bust cyber fraud, recover Rs 52 lakh

DAVANAGERE: The cyber crime police has successfully recovered Rs 52.60 lakh stolen from a victim who fell prey to an online scam. The scammer, identified as Syed Arfath was arrested and the entire amount was returned to the victim.

The victim, Pramod, received a message claiming his bank account was blocked and was asked to provide details to unblock it. The scammers then transferred Rs 52,60,400 from his account. Pramod filed a complaint, and the cybercrime police tracked down the accused.

Investigation revealed that the scammer’s bank account had transactions worth Rs 150 crore, with Rs 132 crore withdrawn and Rs 18 crore frozen. The police have frozen the remaining amount and are investigating further.

Davangere Police Superintendent Uma Prashant praised the cybercrime unit’s efforts and urged the public to be cautious of online scams. “The complainant had claimed that Rs 52,60,400 had been taken out from his bank account when he checked. He went to the bank and found out that the amount had been transferred to another account. Following this, he lodged a complaint with the CEN police”.

Further, the SP said, “This is the first case where we have got the entire amount frozen and arrested Syed Arfat who works at a CCTV shop in Belur, Hassan. He claimed that all his bank transactions were being handled by his friend Ubaid and said that the latter had misused the account. There are seven complaints against his account and there are 127 complaints regarding the accounts of the first accused. We are continuing further investigation”.