Bhubaneswar: Police on Friday urged the city residents not to be trapped by international calls luring them on the pretext of jackpots.

Police also said they would also lunch an awareness drive on cyber fraud after 90 cases under the IT Act were registered in Bhubaneswar in 2017 as compared to 54 in 2016.

A number of cyber frauds took place in recent past in which the victims received calls and emails of lottery wins. "The fraudsters even claimed to be working with multinational companies and had sent emails. There are few cases in which the victims were told that they had won lottery from the Reserve Bank of India," said a police official.

The cops said the fraudsters had started a recent trend in which the victims were receiving fake letters from the RBI in which they claim that a group of people had been selected to get loan from the RBI to start their business. "The fraud later demands money to release the loan amount. Once the victim deposits the money in the given bank account, the money is immediately withdrawn," said a police official.

The state has witnessed a sharp increase in cyber crime cases in 2017 as compared to 2016. The police in 2017 registered 824 cyber crime cases as compared to 317 in 2016.

Frauds also cheat gullible people after befriending them on social networking sites. "The members of well-organised gangs pose as foreign nationals with well-paying jobs and procure foreign SIM cards to convince their targets they are foreigners. Once the target is convinced, the frauds tell them they are coming to India with a huge amount of foreign currency and gold and asks for money on the pretext of customs clearance and other dues," said a police official.