After 4 months, Ghatkopar resident gets back ₹9.85 lakh lost to cyber frauds
In July, Debayan Das, 34, lost ₹9.85 lakh in a task fraud, where the victim is asked to perform tasks like liking or sharing social media posts, YouTube videos, or reviewing products in exchange for some money. The frauds eventually ask the victims to ‘invest’ some money in their schemes to earn profits from it
MUMBAI: A Ghatkopar resident who lost ₹9.85 lakh to cyber frauds in July was able to retrieve the entire money back on Wednesday after the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) police successfully tracked the money trail up to four layers of transactions and freeze the accounts.

In July, Debayan Das, 34, lost ₹9.85 lakh in a task fraud, where the victim is asked to perform tasks like liking or sharing social media posts, YouTube videos, or reviewing products in exchange for some money. The frauds eventually ask the victims to ‘invest’ some money in their schemes to earn profits from it.
“After a certain point, I had invested over ₹9 lakh. When the people with whom I was interacting only on Telegram told me that I needed to pay them income tax. When I argued that a private entity like them can’t ask for taxes, only the government can, the person made some suspicious comments,” Das said. To check their authenticity, he then went to the address in BKC that was listed as their office address.
Despite waiting there for a couple of hours and repeated internet calls, they dodged Das. On inquiry, he was told no such business was located in the said corporate building. Das then approached the police, who registered a cheating case against the unknown conmen.
Immediately after registering the complaint, the police started the process of communicating with the banks where the conned money had gone. The process took time, which made Das lose hope. “At the time, I thought the police were not even bothered about getting me the money back. However, it was later that I realised they were following the due process and covering all bases,” he said.
Usually, the police can save and retrieve a cyber fraud victim’s money if they approach them within a few hours of the crime being committed. “In this case, the challenge was that the complainant had transferred small amounts to various accounts. Such accounts are usually parking accounts from where the money is transferred at the soonest,” said a police officer.
The police carefully sifted through all the transactions, first freezing the primary accounts where Das had made direct deposits. They then went through the money trail of these accounts, and freezed the accounts up to four layers.
A team supervised by deputy commissioner of police for zone 8 Dikshitkumar Gedam and assistant commissioner of police Suhas Kamble, under the guidance of senior inspector Raghunath Kadam, a team led by inspector Rajesh Gavli, inspector Ajay Shirsagar, sub-inspector Rajabhau Garad is now in the process to track the accused involved in the fraud.
The proof of all these transactions was carefully maintained and presented in front of the metropolitan magistrate’s court in Bandra this week. Based on it, the court ordered the return of property, after which Das got back all the lost money.
When asked what he learnt from this experience, Das said, “Most people hesitate to involve the police in cyber frauds. If you go to the police at the right time, it is possible to recover your money, partly or in full.”

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