To stop the malpractices of cheating people online on pretext of providing them oxygen cylinders and covid medicines, the Delhi Police in last two days has identified 200 mobile numbers, 95 bank accounts, 33 UTR and 17 wallets in coordination with National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Police said they have blocked several accounts involved in such practices.

According to Chinmoy Biswal, the Public Relation Officer (PRO) of the Delhi Police, a payment of Rs74, 380 was stopped on May 3 by IDBI Bank while two amounts of Rs 11, 000 and Rs 20, 000 were stopped on May 01by ICICI Bank and PayTM.

“Earlier when the project was in initial stage, an amount of Rs 84,510 was stopped on April 17 by Karur Vyasa Bank while an amount of Rs. 39,001 was stopped by Airtel Payment Bank on April 23 and two amounts of Rs 11,000 and Rs 20,000 were stopped on March 1 by ICICI Bank and PayTM. An amount of Rs 74,380 was stopped on May 3 by IDBI Bank,” said Biswal.

“During the pilot phase itself, the platform has prevented over Rs 20 lakh from ending into the hands of the cyber cheats from where it is difficult to retrieve,” said Biswal.“All these transactions were made by unsuspecting victims looking for Covid medicines, oxygen cylinders etc.

 The quantum growth in digital transaction has brought with it the similar growth in fraudulent transactions too. The fraudsters ask unsuspecting victims to pay in banks with IFSC Code outside Delhi. This is a need to do due diligence and not fall prey by transferring money to a bank at far off places like Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal and other places,” said Biswal.

Urging people to be cautious and come forwards with such frauds, the Delhi Police said people can report these frauds to the cyber helpline number #155260.

“The call is attended by a police person and after obtaining minimum mandatory details of the transaction, a token is generated and the beneficiary bank, wallet or merchant is alerted to trace and ‘stop’ the defrauded amount if it is still residing with it,” said police.

“As soon as the concerned bank, wallet or merchant is digitally notified, it stops the flow of the defrauded money and reports back to the platform; in case where the defrauded money has shifted to another financial intermediary, the same is alerted and the platform is intimated of the same. This process is repeated till the alleged amount has either been kept on temporary hold or is reported to have been either withdrawn or consumed by way of delivery of good,” said police.

“After reporting the incident, the complainant is notified by way of an SMS containing the reference number of his complaint and a link to www.cybercrime.gov.in the website on which a formal and detailed complaint is required to be lodged by the victim within the next 24 hours,” said police.

“Where no such formal complaint is received within 24 hours of calling up the helpline, the money so stopped is released by the intermediary concerned to travel as per the instructions of the beneficiary,” said police.