‘The cops told me they can only trace call location & inform local police stn’

GHAZIABAD: For victims of cybercrimes and financial frauds, which have seen a significant rise in 2020 in Ghaziabad, there have been hardly any redressals. Though Ghaziabad police has an active cyber cell, police enforcement to tackle such crimes has not been enough, victims say.
Complainants claim the general attitude of the police has been of helplessness, if not indifference, while dealing with such cases.Vasundhara-resident AB Choudhary (74), a retired media person, was cheated of Rs 74,000 by cybercrimes on August 23. He had called on a number where he received an SMS for updating his Know Your Customer (KYC) documents. A month after Choudhary lodged a complaint at Indirapuram police station, he claims, there has been “no progress”.
“The last time when I checked with the police about the status of my case, I was told that a cyber cell is working on it. I have lost sleep over it and all I am getting from the police is empty assurances, “he says. “I am a retired man and it pinches me to have lost my hard-earned money to fraudsters,” he adds.
Choudhary says he had come across a message on his mobile phone which said that he needed to update his KYC immediately. “In panic, I called on the number from where the message was sent. I was told to pay Rs 10 as a processing fee through net banking and the next thing I knew was that Rs 24,000 was deducted from my account.”
The septuagenarian claims he was yet to figure out what was going on when he received another call from the fraudster. “They said I will have to pay the processing fee from another card, which I did. And this time another Rs 49,000 was deducted from my account. When I realised the fraud, I rushed to the Indirapuram police station,” he adds.
Choudhary claims the police did not show much urgency or interest to his complaint and he was made to sign a few papers that were to be submitted to the bank. “Since these fraudsters are from different parts of the country, it is very difficult to track them, is what cops said. At best, the police told me, they could locate the place from where the call originated and inform the police station concerned” he said.
Pinky Mishra (32), a homemaker, made the same mistake when she responded to a phone call and was asked to urgently update KYC four months ago. “I am not well versed in online transactions and I panicked,” Mishra said. “Later my daughter told me that Rs 45,000 has been debited from my account. I rushed to the police station the next day. Since then, there has been no word from the police,” she added.