Cybercops Register 52 FIRs, Arrest 36 Crooks; About Rs49 Lakh Refunded To Victims
Hyderabad: Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police carried out multiple out-of-state operations following receipt of National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) complaints; These complaints led to the registration of 52 FIRs and the arrest of 36 people in five different states in connection with 14 different cyber crimes and Rs 48,98,210 was recovered and refunded in the last 40 days.
Additional DCP (SIT and Crimes) V. Arvind, Babu, announced that the police arrested 22 people for investment scams, including five social media-related, three job scams and six marriage scams.
Babu said looking at the geographical distribution of the 26 arrested cyber fraudsters, four are from Telangana and Maharashtra and two are from Karnataka, AP and Delhi.
The Cyber Patrol Enforcement Unit maintained stringent digital surveillance and intelligence-based tracking throughout the month. Babu reported that these monitoring operations identified 280 active social media profiles running 310 paid advertisements on Facebook and Instagram promoting illegal activities, including online child exploitation, multi-level marketing schemes and fraudulent investment websites designed to target vulnerable Indian internet users by promising unrealistic returns, referral commissions and immediate financial bonuses.
To reduce further risk and prevent widespread victimization, he said, all 280 profiles identified were officially reported to the relevant platforms and subsequently removed.
To date, ongoing cyber patrol initiatives have cumulatively identified and removed 958 social media profiles and 2,517 paid promotional ads associated with online gaming, illegal betting and fraudulent investment schemes; As a result, eight FIRs were registered against the promoters. Further, the DCP said that the C-MITRA victim assistance initiative has carried out significant outreach by issuing 1,247 appeals to victims to offer guidance and support and has also registered 225 Zero FIRs based on complaints received to expedite legal proceedings.
To assist public recovery efforts, the ministry of home affairs, in coordination with I4C, operates the money restoration module portal, a dedicated digital platform that helps victims of cyber fraud recover funds frozen in fraudsters’ accounts.
Babu explained that this system eases bureaucratic restrictions by connecting victims directly with banking institutions, law enforcement and payment aggregators, thus eliminating the need for victims to visit multiple physical offices.
The GRM framework standardized communication between victims, NCRP, local State/UT police departments and financial institutions. Its key functions include providing a formal process for investigating and expeditiously unfreezing legitimate citizen bank accounts that may have been erroneously blocked due to suspected links to fraudulent transactions, as well as enabling genuine victims of financial cybercrimes to pursue the restoration of their defrauded assets.
In parallel with these measures, the public needs to be wary of malicious APK files and phishing links distributed via SMS and WhatsApp under the guise of official bank communications.
