A city lawyer who had lost money to fraudsters who claimed that his house’s power supply was going to be disconnected in a few hours, got back the swindled amount by reporting the fraud quickly to police.
The complainant had reported to the police that he had lost Rs 59,900 after interacting with a person who claimed he was calling from the “electricity office”. Moments later, he realised he had been duped.
“The good thing he did was to immediately come to the police station. He was directed to the cyber cell of the central division,” said an officer of Lalbazar.
In such cases, time plays a crucial role in recovering the money, the officer said.
Once the matter was reported, officers started tracking the money trail from the complainant’s bank account. They found the money in two wallets, belonging to two online gaming companies.
The officers wrote to the bank and the gaming companies informing them that the money that had been credited to the accounts had been fraudulently acquired.
“Following this, the company froze the accounts and reverted the money to the complainant’s account,” the officer said.
The police said it was difficult to track the owner of the e-wallets because these are opened using SIM cards that can be issued against fake IDs. Even if the money is transferred to a bank account, the police often fail to track the real account owner.
The lawyer had received a text message saying his home’s power supply would be disconnected if he did not pay his last bill. The lawyer had texted back saying that he had already paid his last outstanding bill.
“After this, he received a call from an unknown number from a man who said he was calling from the electricity office. The man said the lawyer’s last payment was yet to be processed and he could prevent the supply from being disconnected only if the bill was repaid,” said an officer of Hare Street police station.
The lawyer was persuaded to download an app. Without realising it was a screen-sharing app, the lawyer did as he was asked. Later, he received a text message saying Rs 59,900 had been debited from his account.
“The lawyer reported the matter to us,” the officer said.
The police said reporting the crime in time was very important to recover the money. However, there have been instances where fraudsters have withdrawn money within a few minutes.
“Once the money is withdrawn through an ATM, it becomes almost impossible to recover it. But while it is in an account or a wallet, there is a possibility of getting it back. We encourage people to report the crime as soon as it happens,” the officer said.
In this case, the police could recover Rs 46,510. The remaining amount had possibly been spent playing online games by the fraudster, the police said.
