Tirupati: Cyber police retrieve money from hacker

Tirupati: Tirupati cybercrime police helped a woman, SV Susmita, to get back an amount Rs 11.60 lakh, which she remitted into the account of a hacker, following a fake message. According to Tirupati district SP P Parameshwar Reddy, Sushmita, resident of LB Nagar under SV University police limits, is running Praja Pragathi Charitable Trust, received a message from her trust member AL Rangarajan, based in Chennai, to deposit certain amount. Rangarajan looks after the trust affairs including receipts of foreign donations to the trust.

It came to know that a hacker, hacked Rangarajans’ mail and sent a message on May 25 to Sushmita asking her to remit Rs 5 lakh, furnishing a bank account. Again, he sent a mail on May 29 asking her to send Rs 11 lakh.

The fraud came to light when Sushmita, after sending the amounts, sent the receipts to Rangarajan informing him that she paid Rs 16 lakh as requested by him into the account he mentioned in his message.

When Rangarajan informed her that he had not made any request for money, Susmita suspected foul play. She immediately filed a complaint with SV University police station, who registered a case on May 25, 2023 and transferred the case to cyber lab for investigation.

During investigation, cyber police found out that a fraudster hacked Chennai trust member AL Rangarajan’s mail and sent the message twice for money. Cyber police contacted the bank officials in Chennai and froze the account to which the amount was transferred. The bank officials returned the money to Sushmita’s account. Cyber Lab CI Ramachandra Reddy on Monday handed over the bank papers to Sushmita, informing that her amount was returned to her account.

SP P Parameshwar Reddy reiterated his appeal to the public to approach cyber lab without any delay in case of any cyber fraud for remedy. Tirupati police department has a full-pledged cyber lab with latest facilities and experienced cybercrime police to help victims of cyber fraud, he added.