People in Himachal lost over Rs 4 crore to cybercriminals in one month: Police

Shimla, June 12

People of the state have lost more than Rs 4 crore in the past one month to cybercriminals on the pretext of online trading and investing money in IPOs and blockchain, the police said.

According to the police, the fraudsters first get the contact number of victims from social media and promise them high returns on their investments. As a next step, the fraudsters add the victims to Telegram and WhatsApp groups and ask them to create a trading account/wallet. Thereafter, the victims are told to make investments of an initial amount of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.

At first, the victims are offered good returns to build trust and are encouraged to increase their investments. Later when the victims try to withdraw their money, they are unable to do so and come to know that they have been duped.

DIG (Cybercrime) Mohit Chawla, in a statement, said there has been a surge in cybercrime cases related to online trading across the country. “Innocent individuals are falling prey to fake schemes and losing substantial sums of money to cybercriminals, who continually evolve their tactics for duping people,” he added.

The DIG said over the past few months, cybercrime cases registered in Himachal Pradesh have primarily involved online trading scams. Victims are lured into fraudulent schemes promising high returns, only to find themselves financially devastated, he said.

To prevent cyber fraud, the police have asked the people to refrain from sharing personal information or downloading unknown and suspicious apps and accessing such websites. The people have also been advised to be cautious while using online trading apps and conduct thorough verification to ensure authenticity and credibility of trading apps with recognised authorities such as BSE, NSE and SEBI.

People have further been advised to report cybercrime incidents to the police.