More than 150 people were duped of more than Rs 1 crore by scamsters who used the name of US President Donald Trump to dupe victims. Several victims have now approached the police, seeking help to recover their lost money.
According to a report by the Deccan Herald, people were scammed across the state from Bengaluru, and Tamakuru to Mangaluru and Haveri. The scamsters lured the victims with an app named 'Trump Hotel Rental’ and promised to double their investment. They also circulated an AI-generated video of the US President to gain the victims' confidence. They were promised quick and rich rewards in return for their investments.
“Victims who fell into the fraudsters’ trap were promised rich rewards for their investment, besides opportunities to work from home. In Haveri alone, more than 15 such people have been swindled,” Haveri Cybercrime Economics and Narcotics (CEN) inspector Shivashankar R Ganachari told Deccan Herald.
One of the victims said, “We were asked to pay Rs 1,500 to set up our accounts, and asked to write profiles of companies. Completion of each such task was accompanied by an increase in the money we had supposedly earned on our dashboard. In reality, I lost more than Rs 1 lakh."
Similar complaints have been registered in several police stations across Karnataka against the cybercriminals.
Four cybercrime complaints are filed in India every minute
A 2024 Moneycontrol analysis shows that cybercrimes have kept pace with digital modes becoming more pervasive. Cybercrime complaints have increased sevenfold in four years to 1.5 million in 2023 from 0.26 million in 2020, according to data furnished by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
One of the reasons for the growth in cyber fraud scams is the increased payout for fraudsters. While one could make just Rs 3.8 lakh per fraud in 2018-19, last fiscal year, the average payout per fraud case was over Rs 5 lakh in 2023-24.
The growing menace of cybercrime fraud also prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak about it in his Mann ki Baat address on October 27, 2024. “Beware of digital arrest frauds. There is no system like digital arrest under the law. No government agency will ever contact you via phone or video call for such an investigation,” he warned.
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