Haryana Police has arrested a cybercriminal from Bihar for duping a Kurukshetra resident of Rs 3 lakh by pretending to be a foreign relative of the victim.

An official spokesperson of the Haryana Police on Saturday said the victim, Hardeep Singh, had received a call from a cybercriminal posing as his foreign relative who was in trouble and needed money urgently to get out of the situation. The victim, scared of the situation, transferred Rs 3 lakh into the bank account provided by the fraudster.

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As soon as the victim realised that he had been cheated, he filed a complaint immediately on the Cyber Crime Portal. The State Cyber Police Station in Panchkula registered a case and started investigating it. During the investigation, the cyber Police arrested the accused who had committed the fraud by posing as a foreign relative.

The suspect was arrested from Bihar, where he had transferred the money from the victim’s account. The investigation revealed that he was a part of a larger cyber fraud network.

The spokesperson said in this mode of operation, fraudsters call victims randomly and make them believe that they are their foreign relatives who are in trouble and need money to get out of the situation.

“To stop cybercrime, there is a need for better cyber training and awareness among the public. The state police is organizing cyber awareness programs in each district. In addition, the state crime branch has also released the 2023 cyber training calendar, which starts with providing cybercrime training to every investigative officer in the state,” said Additional Director General of Police, State Crime Branch Haryana, OP Singh.

“The increasing awareness among the public can be gauged from the fact that in just the first three months of this year (January to March), approximately 25,000 complaints related to cybercrime were registered, out of which we filed 531 cases and sent 299 cybercriminals behind bars. Our Cyber helpdesk, which has been operating 24 hours a day, has saved approximately Rs 10 Crore in just three months by working in collaboration with the district Police,” he added.

Haryana Police advises people to be careful and not to trust calls or messages from unknown numbers or any suspect posing as someone they know, the spokesperson said.