No stopping cyber frauds in Kerala; awareness programs not yielding results

THRISSUR: Despite increasing awareness, those falling prey to cyber frauds are not slowing down, according to police records. Housewives are the most likely victims. Although police have repeatedly clarified about the hoax of virtual arrest, people are getting duped for fun. The only improvement is the nerve now shown by victims to file a complaint with the police rather than keeping quiet, fearing embarrassment. Since many complaints are not filed within the stipulated time, it becomes impossible to recover the money.

Artificial intelligence crimes are also a challenge. The number of people who have lost lakhs to fraud calls through AI is now on the rise. The number of new frauds using AI has increased after the police ramped up awareness against money laundering through tricks such as black money threats, cyber arrests, and fake trading platforms.

In Kerala, 286 people were arrested till March last year in the complaints filed by victims of cyber financial fraud. Rs 6.5 crore was recovered from them and given back to the complainants. 61,361 bank accounts, 18,653 SIM cards and 59,218 mobile accounts used for online financial fraud were frozen. Rs 26.26 crore was withheld from banks. During this period, 9539 complaints related to online financial fraud were registered.