Bhubaneswar: Cracking down cyber fraudsters, the Twin City Police Commissionerate has frozen around Rs 9.5 crore and returned Rs 46 lakh to the victims who were duped by the fraudsters.
Speaking to media persons here, Police Commissioner Sanjeeb Panda said 2,394 cyber fraud cases have been registered in several police stations during the last six months (January and June), with the fraud amount rising to over Rs 36 crore.
Shri Panda said that police have frozen around Rs 9.5 crore fraud money and returned Rs 46 lakh to the victims while the other duped people are waiting for their money to be recovered.
The Police Commissioner has arrested 21 cyber fraudsters and produced them before court. Five of them are members of an inter-state racket, he added.
Shri Panda informed that most of the cyber fraud cases have occurred through UPI fraud, social media, parcel delivery, credit card delivery, and sending messages about KYC.
Notably, the Crime Branch of Police on yesterday arrested 15 cyber criminals including two masterminds for their alleged involvement in a series of cyber-crime cases of crypto, stock and IPO investment frauds.
The organized gang of cyber criminals was cheating the people in the guise of investment schemes promising high returns. They enticed innocent people with lucrative offers, pursuing them to make investments by way of transfer of funds into the accounts of cyber fraudsters, he said.