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Journalism of Courage
A 49-year-old woman from Andheri in Mumbai, who lost Rs 2.40 lakh to cyber fraud while trying to buy sweets for Diwali, approached the local Oshiwara police within an hour of the incident, following which the cyber police unit managed to recover Rs 2.27 lakh, the police said.
The incident took place on October 23 when the woman tried to order Diwali sweets from an online app for ordering food. She ordered sweets for Rs 1,000 from ‘Tiwari Sweets’. As she was unable to make the payment, she called up the mobile number listed in the app, unaware that the number was that of a cyber-fraudster, the police said.
The fraudster impersonated an employee of the sweet shop and said he would help her make the payment. He then asked her to share her credit card details and the one time password (OTP) received on her phone, the police said. When she shared it, Rs 2.40 lakh was allegedly debited from her account. Receiving the alerts from her bank about the money transfer, the woman rushed to the local Oshiwara police station, where the police contacted representatives of two digital payments companies and an e-commerce company.
“We managed to freeze the accounts where the money was transferred and recovered Rs 2.27 lakh lost in the fraud,” said Manohar Dhanwade, senior inspector at Oshiwara police station.
With thousands of cybercrimes being registered in Mumbai this year, the Mumbai Police, in an attempt to encourage people to register complaints immediately, started a helpline number in May – 1930 – to help people recover money lost in financial cybercrimes.
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