GUWAHATI: Within 24 hours of receiving a complaint, the Assam CID was able to locate and freeze Rs 20 lakh that had been fraudulently obtained from a person while admitting his son to an MBBS programme at the DY Patil Medical College in Pune.
According to the Police, a victim of an online fraud of Rs 20 lakh filed a complaint at Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System 24x7 helpline number 1930 of CID Assam at about 5 pm on Thursday.
"The fraudster stole the money under the pretense of gaining his ward admission to the MBBS programme at the DY Patil Medical College in Pune.
Upon receiving the complaint, the CID immediately got to work, calling and emailing the nodal officials of the impacted bank to request that they alert the bank's management to the amount's whereabouts "cited by the Police.
"The CID was successful in finding and freezing Rs 20 lakh from the fraudster's account throughout the day. The scammer was prevented from misappropriating the funds by CID Assam's quick response "Added the police.
The fraudster was unable to steal the money because of the prompt action of CID. To return the money to the victim, appropriate legal action is currently being pursued.
Assam Police have also warned the public to be vigilant and avoid becoming a victim of similar crimes in the meantime.
They recommended people thoroughly investigate the educational institution before sending any money for admittance.
The National Crime Records Bureau's recent disclosure about Assam having the second-highest rate of cybercrimes in the nation in the year 2021 has once again brought attention to how vulnerable people from the state are to online fraud.
According to the data, 704 of the 4846 cybercrime cases in Assam in 2021 involved fraud.
Speaking about the obstacles encountered in such cases, AYV Krishna ADGP, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Assam said to the media, "One of the greatest challenges in curtailing such crimes is that the criminal can be anywhere; outside the district, state, or sometimes even from outside the nation.
It gets more challenging to contact the accused if he is located far away. Another difficulty we confront is that the majority of these scammers operate utilising Wi-Fi or VPN, which makes it challenging to track their identity and location," he added.
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