Dadu Majra resident loses Rs 51 lakh to cyber fraudsters

In another instance of “digital arrest”, a resident of Dadu Majra was deceived by fraudsters who kept him hounding him with calls for nearly 20 days, ultimately coercing him to transfer around Rs 51 lakh of his savings.

The victim, Hari Nath, a tutor, received a call on August 30 from a woman claiming to be an employee of a telecom company. She told him that all SIM cards linked to his Aadhaar card would be disconnected within two hours, as one of the numbers under his name was involved in money laundering activities.

The woman told Nath that there were seven complaints and an FIR had been filed in Mumbai regarding the suspicious phone number.

Unable to fathom the scam, the woman asked Nath to speak with purported Mumbai police officials and gave him with a phone number. When the victim called the number, he was directed to make a WhatsApp video call. On the video call, a man dressed in a police uniform informed Nath that a bank account in his name was allegedly involved in money laundering transactions totaling Rs 650 crore. He was told that Rs 6.8 crore had been moved through his account, following which investigations had been initiated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The scammer claimed that Nath would be arrested within two hours unless he stayed on the phone with a CBI officer throughout the investigation.

The fraudsters, posing as officials, persuaded Nath to reveal his financial information and transfer money to them for “investigation” purposes, with a promise that it would be returned. Fearing further trouble, the victim transferred Rs 48 lakh by liquidating his bank Fixed Deposit (FD) and share market investment.

Several days later the victim was told that he was cleared of charges but had to pay Rs 88,000 to get the FIR cancelled and Rs 1.5 lakh as RBI investigation fee.

Realising he had been duped when he didn’t receive the money back, Nath reported the matter to the police on October 24. The Cyber Crime Investigation Cell of the UT Police is probing the case.

Modus operandi

• Hari Nath received a call on August 30 from a woman claiming to be a telecom company employee
• She told him that all SIM cards linked to his Aadhaar would be disconnected, as one of the numbers was involved in money laundering
• He was asked to make a video call on a given number to “Mumbai police officials”
• A man in uniform told Nath that a bank account in his name was involved in money laundering
• Fraudsters persuaded him to transfer Rs 48 lakh for the purpose of "investigation"
• Several days later, the victim was told that he was cleared of charges and should pay Rs 88,000 to get FIR cancelled and Rs 1.5 lakh as RBI "investigation" fee
• He reported the matter to police on October 24 and Cyber Crime Investigation Cell of the UT Police started investigation