The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday said it has brought back over Rs 2 crore that was duped from residents across the state by cyber criminals since May this year and asked victims of online fraud to report such cases on 155260 immediately.
Another Rs 5 crore have been frozen in various bank accounts that were fraudulently siphoned off from innocent people by cyber thugs, including those sitting outside the state, the police said.
"Over the recent years, cyber criminals sitting in far-off states have targeted gullible people and duped them of their money using online means. The Cyber Cell of the UP police has been taking action on such complaints of fraud and also been able from time to time in recovering duped money," it said in a statement.
"So far, Rs 2.02 crore that was duped from people by cyber criminals have been brought back while another Rs 5.09 crore has been frozen in various bank accounts," the police said.
The money restored has been from areas under the jurisdiction of Cyber Police stations in Bareilly, Chitrakoot, Saharanpur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Moradabad, Varanasi, Lucknow, Aligarh, Prayagraj, among others, the police said.
UP Superintendent of Police (Cyber Cell) Triveni Singh said the process for restoring the money in the bank accounts of the victims of cyber fraud started in May this year with a scheme launched by the Union Home Ministry.
"In case of any online fraud, the victim should immediately call up the cyber helpline number 155260 or the emergency police number 112," Mr Singh said.
"The UP Police put in place a system with all banks, payment gateways and mobile wallets linked to it. So, when any case is reported directly on 155260, the money is immediately put on hold and the chances of retrieving it are more," Mr Singh told PTI.
"The victims of cyber fraud may also call 112 because we have 24-hour call monitoring system on this number also which is integrated with our network," he said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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