Victim of cyber crime? Here’s why ‘golden hour’ matters

The Golden Hour appears to be the new magic mantra to prevent victims of cyber fraud from losing their money The cityrsquos Cyber Crime units have been able to recover more than 90 per cent of complainantsrsquo money thanks to the window available right after the fraudulent transaction has taken place Of the Rs 111 crore lost by complainants to frauds Rs 11 crore has been recoveredOne of the newly opened cyber police stations at Samta Nagar Kandivli East File picThe Cyber Crime police received 228 complaints of fraudulent transactions in 2019 and 2020 The Golden Hour refers to the first 24 hours from the time of the crime when there is the possibility of recovering the money These complaints are separate from the FIRs related to cybercrime cases To strengthen their response to cybercrime the Mumbai police have also established a cyber cell in every police stationA cyber police officer told midday ldquoIf a person who has been cheated approaches the police within 24 hours of the transaction police recover the money using the stop payment mechanism As soon as we receive a complaint we give the bank details of the complaint and the method of cheating and they stop the money from being transferredrdquo The banks are contacted by the police via email and phone The 228 cyber fraud complaints within the first 24 hours had collectively lost Rs 11175966 Prompt action led to Rs 10167633 being recoveredZone XI Malad West to Borivli West has the maximum number of such complaints at 130 with Rs 5711610 lost and recovered Zone XII Malad East to Dahisar is in second place with 58 complaints Rs 2028811 lost and Rs 1733216 recovered Zone VII Ghatkopar to Mulund is in third place with 18 complaints Rs 1282333 lost and Rs 919279 recoveredJoint Commissioner of Police law and order Vishwas Nangare Patil told midday ldquoPeople must prevent themselves from becoming cybercrime victims by approaching the police without delay There is a possibility of recovering the money within the Golden HourrdquoSaved in the nick of timeSatyendra Jain 67 a custom excise superintended got his money back in a week through the method He had ported from one network service provider to another and had Rs 1000 in his previous account for which he sent the company an email However his email was hacked and someone called and asked him to download an app and deposit Rs 10 in it to get his money back Jain did that but received an OTP that the caller had asked for and became suspicious The OTP had also been sent to the hacked email ID using which the fraudster took Rs 36000 Jain submitted his account details to Malad police which reached out to the bank ldquoAs soon as I went to the police they asked for a bank statement and sent an email to the bank and blocked the transactionrdquo Jain saidDharmesh Patel 36 a Dahisar resident received a message offering to double his money by downloading an app Patel got the app and deposited Rs 30000 in it But he got a call saying that there is no scheme for the amount and that he must deposit Rs 1 lakh for a chance to get Rs 7 lakh Patel took a loan from relatives and deposited Rs 142 lakh But after the transactions none of the contact persons related to the scheme was taking his calls which sent alarm bells ringing Patel went to Dahisar police gave his bank statement and the transaction was blocked by contacting the bank He got his money back in four daysldquoI got attracted to the scheme as I did not have work during the lockdown But the police helped me get my money back I also returned the money I had borrowed from my relativesrdquo228Complaints received within 24 hours of transactions in 2019 2020130Highest no of complaints from Zone XI Malad