There has been a palpable rise in cyber crimes in Telangana recently. Even Tollywood director Venky Kudumula fell prey to a similar crime, last week.
He was duped by a swindler who cheated him off Rs 66,000.
It all started when Venky got a call from a man claiming to be a representative of the organising body of an international film festival. The caller then told him that his February 2020 film,
Bheeshma (starring popular faces including Nithiin and Rashmika Mandanna), had been nominated for awards in several categories at the festival, and asked him to pay Rs 10,000 as the processing fee for every nomination.
The understandably elated Kudumula believed the fraudster, and transferred a total of Rs 66,000 to the bank account the latter had mentioned.
Once the payment had been made, the caller disappeared. His numbers too became unreachable. That was when the director realised he had been duped. He then approached the Hyderabad Cyber Crime department last evening, and lodged a complaint.
The police are currently trying to trace the fraudster using the bank transactions.
While the cheat had only made up accolades for the film, Bheeshma, released in February 2019, did actually fare very well at the box office last year.
The rise in cyber crimes in the state, and the country, has become a pressing issue - in December last year, a huge cyber crime racket was busted by the Cyberabad Cyber Crime police. Four employees of Cubevo Technology Private Limited were
arrested for running illegal instant loan apps.