Income Tax Department, Customs, CBI, and the Reserve Bank have repeatedly warned the public of the nonexistence of virtual arrest, the new gimmick of fraudsters to siphon money from commoners. Despite this awareness and warning, there is no dearth of newspapers carrying the headline “Crores embezzled through virtual arrest”. Why is this happening?

It was found that 90 per cent of the fraud happens through smartphones. Are the public too vulnerable to fall for these frauds? Malayalees lost Rs 1200 crore to cyber fraud in the last three years. Last year alone, Rs 22,812 crore was embezzled through cyber scams in the country! Fraudsters are on the roll, even going a tad overboard with the audacity to create fake profiles of high-ranking police officers to embezzle money.

A myriad of messages, from fake vehicle penalties to budget phone recharge, are doing the rounds on social media. Some culprits even masquerade as police officers and appear virtually to trap innocent people.

In recent times, a person impersonating an army brigadier dialled a baker and ordered a cake for a birthday party. Later came a call to the baker asking refund and cancellation of the order. They will sound condescending and even threaten to close down the enterprise if not agreed to the demand. Even fake screenshots of online transactions will be provided to make everything look genuine. In Kerala, out of the Rs 1,200 crores lost by the people in the last three years, Rs 180 crores have been recovered through police intervention. The highest number of people are being scammed in Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram.

The victims of such scams include IT professionals, doctors, government officials, teachers, and businessmen. Most of the frauds are centred in North India and foreign countries. Various types of fraud are committed by taking advantage of the financial greed of people. Effective intervention to hinder such fraud is expected from the police and cyber experts. This effort will be of no use if people continue to act naively.