Cyber Crime Soars In Bhopal: Residents Lose Over ₹40 Crore In Just 7 Months

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The cyber crimes have refused to die down in the city, with the year-on-year amount being lost by Bhopalites increasing exponentially. The data sourced from the district cyber crime cell revealed that overall, the residents lost as much as Rs 40.88 crore to the cyber crooks within the first seven months of this year (January-August 26, 2024). The cyber cell received a total of 4,104 complaints in the said period.

The amount lost in the first seven months has surpassed the overall tally of 2023, during which the Bhopalites had ended up losing Rs 26 crore in total. The highest numbers of complaints were received in connection with social media frauds (826). The investigating officials at the cyber cell told Free Press that this year, almost 90% of the amount lost by Bhopalites has been attributed to the share trading and investment frauds, which, although, are 170 in number, have wiped off hefty amounts of money from the people’s bank accounts.

Masterminds based overseas: Officials

An inspector at the cyber wing, Mahendra Shrivastava, told Free Press that this year, a majority of the amount has been swindled by the city residents on the pretext of investing in shares, or trading, in which the crooks offer handsome returns to the people.

The masterminds of the share trading frauds are based overseas, due to which, it becomes next to impossible to trace and arrest them, he added. Furthermore, he said that several members of the share trading fraud gangs based in various parts of India are, although, arrested, no money is recovered from them, as they transfer the duped amount to their kingpins.

Cyber crime graph has been growing year-on-year in the city, as almost 75% of the victims, who hold sound awareness about cyber crimes, fall into the crooks’ trap, and repent later says Sujeet Tiwari,  ACP (Cyber cell)