Hyderabad: The Cybercrime Police of Hyderabad arrested 59 cyber fraudsters from eight states and refunded ₹86.64 lakh to victims in September. The month-long crackdown targeted cybercriminals running nationwide scam networks.
59 arrested in cyber fraud crackdown
Last month, police received 320 NCRP complaints. They registered 222 FIRs at the Cybercrime Police Station and 106 at Zonal Cyber Cells.
During multiple operations, teams caught suspects running investment, digital arrest, part-time job, matrimonial, credit card, and movie piracy scams. Among them, 28 were involved in investment frauds, six in digital arrests, four in part-time job scams, two in matrimonial fraud, four in credit card fraud, and three in piracy.
Overall, the accused were connected to 257 cases nationwide, including 74 in Telangana. They also operated in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Haryana.
Meanwhile, investigators seized 43 mobile phones, nine cheque books, eight passbooks, 23 debit cards, four laptops, one company stamp, and 21 SIM cards.
Victims recover ₹86.64 lakh
Police refunded ₹58.47 lakh from investment scams and ₹5.21 lakh from OTP frauds. They also returned ₹13 lakh from impersonation cases and ₹12.43 lakh from trading scams. In addition, they recovered ₹50,000 from APK fraud, ₹2.58 lakh from credit card fraud, and ₹3.34 lakh from job scams.
Movie piracy ring exposed
Officers dismantled a piracy network and arrested five suspects from Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh. The arrests followed a complaint by Yarra Manindra Babu of the Anti-Video Piracy Cell, representing the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC). He reported that Telugu films Single and Hit were illegally uploaded online on their release day.
Digital arrest scam leads to death
In another operation, police arrested two men from Maharashtra for a digital arrest scam that caused the death of a retired CSRMO from Malakpet’s MN Area Hospital. Her son reported that she suffered a cardiac arrest on September 8 after repeated harassment by fraudsters posing as Bangalore Police.
The scammers accused her of human trafficking and sent fake documents from the Supreme Court, ED, and RBI. They extorted ₹6.6 lakh from her pension account. Consequently, the threats and psychological abuse caused severe distress and led to her death. Shockingly, the fraudsters continued to message her family even afterwards.
