Nepal Police plan an anti-scam centre to freeze stolen money within minutes

Police receive between 200 and 300 cyber fraud complaints a day, but by the time a victim's report is processed the money has often been moved through other banks and withdrawn, Onlinekhabar reported on 14 October. Deepakraj Awasthi, spokesperson for the Police Cyber Bureau, said only about 10 percent of defrauded money is currently recovered.

The proposed Anti-Scam Centre would bring representatives of Nepal Police, Nepal Rastra Bank, banks and financial institutions, payment service providers, and telecom and internet companies under one roof to provide a 24-hour service. The Home Ministry has approved the proposal, and work on a hall, a hotline and other facilities is under way at the Cyber Bureau's new building. Awasthi said operations could begin within a month once the Finance Ministry approves a budget.

How it would work

Staff would identify and freeze suspicious bank accounts, phone numbers and websites, analyse transactions and, where needed, deactivate numbers, with a focal person from each institution. Awasthi said the aim is to freeze funds within 10 minutes: money can pass through as many as four accounts in a minute, while tracing transfers between accounts can currently take up to five months.

The first phase will focus on banks and financial institutions. International incidents, such as a hack of a bank's SWIFT system, would remain with the Cyber Bureau rather than the new centre. Separately, Nepal Rastra Bank is developing a computer emergency response team for the financial sector.

Police officers and bankers say the Electronic Transactions Act, 2063 provides for recovering fraudulent gains but is not enough to claw back money moved between banks, and want the central bank to issue clearer rules. Police first announced in August that they had begun preparing the centre.

Sources

Onlinekhabar (external link); Onlinekhabar English (external link)