Hyderabad: Multiple investigations by the police here revealed growing incidents of rural youth in Telangana's Suryapet and Khammam districts being trapped in online scams.
Police said the scams involved illegal trading apps, which promise easy money to lure young people into large investments. “However, the operators of these apps are often involved in frauds, and the gullible investors end up losing their hard-earned money,” they said.
Highlighting one of the cases, a senior police officer said that a youth from Vallapuram village in Nadigudem Mandal was left in huge distress after being trapped in an investment scam through a trading app, losing all his money. The victim had also left a private job to participate in the trading but was financially ruined, police said.
The Hyderabad Cybercrime Police have found that there are several such cases, revealing an alarming trend. The recent probe allegedly traced many private bank accounts in Suryapet and Khammam districts to be linked to the illegal cash flows. “After the investigation we found many rural youths have been investing in unauthorised trading apps that facilitated cybercriminals,” they said.
Recently, the police have also detained several accused, including a woman and a youth, from Vallapuram for alleged suspicious transactions.
Cybercrime Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dara Kavitha, said cybercriminals lure youth with a promise of huge profits and trap them into investing in fraud schemes.
“The cyber fraudsters start with small profits initially to entice gullible investors, leading them to believe future returns can go up to an earning of over Rs. 10,000 daily,” she said. “There are many instances where people invest heavily in this false promise but end up losing their money,” she said.
Kavitha said the majority of victims belong to a young age group, and most of them are either students or unemployed youth, who become easy targets for scammers.
Meanwhile, Hyderabad Police and other law enforcement agencies are now working to raise awareness about such scams and educate people about the risks and the legal troubles.
“We urge the youth to stay away from such activities and try to focus on legal sources of livelihood and income,” said Suryapet Cyber Crime DSP Srinivasa Rao.
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