Eluru: The Eluru district police helped a victim of cyber fraud get back Rs 2.56 lakh investment lost to fraudsters here on Thursday. The victim transferred the money to cyber criminals after watching advertisements on social media.

District SP K Pratap Shiva Kishore, Eluru 2 Town Inspector Ashok Kumar, SI Madhu Venkata Raja, Eluru District Cyber Cell Inspector Dasu, and Women’s SI Valli Padma returned the money lost to the victim. She lost the money in an online investment fraud case (Cr No 290/2024 – Section 318 (4) BNS, 66 (C)(D) IT Act) registered under Eluru 2 Town Police Station.

The victim was lured by WhatsApp and Telegram groups on social media and invested money in names like “trading, bitcoin, cryptocurrency” with the hope of making more profits.

In this process, she noticed that she was cheated by the organisers and immediately filed a complaint through the 1930 number.

Eluru 2 Town Police Inspector Ashok Kumar, SI Madhu Venkataraja, with the help of the District Cyber Cell, identified the fraud and recovered the money.

“We were duped by trusting social media advertisements. But we express our heartfelt gratitude to the SP for his immediate response, resolving our issue and returning our money to us,” the victim said.

Speaking on the occasion, SP Pratap Shiva Kishore said that no one should fall prey to fake investment schemes coming through social media. Advertisements that claim to yield high profits on non-existent investments may be fake.

If anyone has any suspicious links, groups, or information, immediately report it to 1930 or the nearest police station. The details of the victims will be kept confidential. The police department is ready to protect every rupee of people, he added.