The Mangaluru City Police have launched a massive awareness campaign to educate people not to fall prey to online investment and other frauds, that come in various forms, in the wake of increasing number of gullible people becoming victims at the hands of fraudsters.
Police Commissioner Sudheer Kumar Reddy in a statement on Saturday said there was a rise in reporting of investment frauds of late. Poor people were losing their hard earned money to cyber fraudsters by falling for their promises of high returns. Therefore, the officers have created awareness messages and launched a massive campaign to educate people, he said.
Criminals could target people by tricking them into investing in fake schemes with promises of high returns in a shorter period. Once people invest, the money vanishes. These scams look professional and often involve fake websites, WhatsApp / Telegram groups, celebrity endorsements, fraudulent apps/ social media advertisements, etc.
Such fraudulent investment promises often contain guaranteed high returns, urgent pressure to invest, double/triple return promises, unregistered companies or agents, UPI/ crypto payment demands, fake screenshots showing fake profits etc., the police said.
Police also gave examples of some real life fraud cases reported in Mangaluru that included a person from Surathkal losing a whopping ₹1.57 crore to a WhatsApp crypto group; a KPT resident losing ₹37.49 lakh through fake share market group and fake tax demands; a Panjimogaru resident losing ₹27.01 lakh via Instagram work from home scam; a person from Kankanady losing ₹30.55 lakh via Facebook share market advertisement; a Urwa resident losing ₹13.57 lakh through Telegram crypto tips and many more.