Tiruchy police recover Rs 48 L lost in online fraud

TIRUCHY: Tiruchy city police recovered a sum of Rs 48 lakh lost in an online fraud and handed it over to a retired BHEL employee, who was the victim, on Monday.

It is said that Raja Perumal (75), a retired BHEL employee residing at Rockfort Nagar in KK Nagar in Tiruchy, received a WhatsApp message in the month of October luring him to deposit money in the share market for higher returns and the sender had also sent a link for depositing the sum. Believing the message, Raja Perumal, who clicked the link and deposited a sum of Rs 48 lakh.

However, Raja Perumal did not receive any money as promised by the person contacted via WhatsApp. He complained to the city cybercrime police on November 11. Based on the complaint, a case was registered, and the City Commissioner of Police, N Kamini, ordered a probe.

The inquiry by the police found that the sender had sent a link via Wesdor.com, and they had created a fake account in the name of Raja Perumal and cheated him. Further inquiry found that the money that was sent by Raja Perumal was deposited in two bank accounts-one in Gujarat and the other in West Bengal, from where the money was transferred to as many as 20 accounts.

On finding that there were multiple gangs involved in the offence, Tiruchy police sent an appeal to freeze the accounts where the money was transferred, and it was done so.

Subsequently, the entire amount of Rs 48 lakh was recovered and deposited in the account of Raja Perumal. On Monday, Commissioner Kamini handed over the statement of account to Raja Perumal. The commissioner appealed to the public not to click on any such links sent via any mode of media. She also asked to contact the cybercrime toll-free number 1930 for any complaints.