Demonetisation bane for racketeers in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: While the restrictions on bank withdrawals as part of demonetisation have caused severe inconvenience to the public, it is also a blessing in disguise for many as the online racketeers find it difficult to syphon off cash easily.

In a recent incident in the state capital, an employee of a state government organisation had a narrow escape as over Rs 1 lakh deposited by him to a suspicious account could be retrieved.

"With the fresh restrictions, it seems the Nigerian-model racketeers have slowed down their activities as no complaints of online frauds were received during the last couple of months," said cyber police station DySP Rakesh Kumar.

In the present situation, one could only withdraw Rs 2,500 through ATMs and a maximum of  Rs 24,000 from accounts in a week. The lone complaint received by the cyber police in the recent times is that of an employee of a government organisation.

A person who befriended with him through the social media by introducing as a foreigner had requested to transfer over Rs 1 lakh to his account stating that he was in New Delhi for some urgent purpose. After the victim had transferred the fund, the "friend" did not attend his calls. He became suspicious and immediately alerted the cyber police.

"Since there are restrictions on withdrawals, we advised him to alert his bank to reverse transaction immediately. He had not come with any further complaints. Hence we assume that he might have got the money back," said Mr Kumar.