From creating fake sense of fear to luring victims with investment schemes, how criminals spread web of lies to loot online

Days after Oswal was duped by fraudsters in Punjab in the last week of August, a retired IAS officer in Amritsar fell prey to similar fraud, losing Rs 76 lakh to fraudsters, who told him that he was “conniving with a criminal who is indulging in money laundering”.

Eighty-four-year-old Harjinder Singh Chahal, who retired as the secretary of the Medical Education and Research, received two WhatsApp calls on September 3 and 4 from a fraudster claiming to be from the Mumbai Crime branch. “The caller told me that I was conniving with a criminal who was indulging in money laundering. He told me that a subpoena (a legal document ordering someone to appear in a law court) had been issued in my name by the Bombay High Court. He promised to help me clear the case if I did everything the way they instructed me. I was so hypnotised by the caller that I started following his instructions,” reads the FIR registered under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Information Technology (IT) Act on September 24 at the Punjab State Cyber Crime police station in Mohali on the complaint of Chahal. As per the FIR, Chahal stated he deposited different amounts from his three bank accounts ‘one by one’ as was instructed by the caller, duping him of a total of ‘hard-earned money’ to the tune of Rs 76 lakh.

“They shut your brain. I realised about the fraud when a woman employee of one of the banks I had transferred money called informing me that I had fallen victim to fraud,” Chahal, who like Oswal was also kept on video surveillance by the fraudsters, told The Indian Express, adding that the fraudsters had promised that he would get the money back once he is ‘cleared from the case’ and a clearance certificate will be issued’.

As per a similar FIR registered at the same police station on September 12, Mohali resident Maninder Singh was duped over Rs 24 lakh after he received a call from a fraudster on September 8. After Maninder was duped, he was sent a “receiving letter” and a “clearance” letter both from the “CBI”, as per his statement in the FIR. The caller claimed to be from ‘Telecom Service of India’ and said a phone number in the name of Maninder was used for “illegal advertising” and “harassing text messages”. As per the FIR, the caller promised to help Maninder and “transferred” the call to the “Delhi Crime Branch” where “officer named Arjun Singh” after “checking the details” that the phone number “taken on your Aadhaar card” was being used for “money laundering” and “17 complaints have been booked on this number”. Maninder was told to pay Rs 2.45 lakh into a bank account, wait for “further orders” and “kept on video call surveillance for 24 hours before he was told to transfer Rs 21.68 lakh FD amount to another bank account”.

The ADGP said most cyber fraudsters were “operating from places in Assam and West Bengal, apart from some places in Jharkhand”.

“They told me to transfer the money saying they had to cross-check if it was not a money laundering case. They promised the money would be transferred back to me after verification,” 32-year-old Maninder told The Indian Express, adding: “The clearance letters looked original.”
Maninder said police were making all efforts to arrest the accused. “The gang is very sharp-minded. Police are making all efforts. Police have treated me very nicely and assured me that they would try their level best to recover the amount,” Maninder said.

Like Chahal and Maninder, Oswal was also told by fraudsters that his money would be transferred back to him.

Punjab Additional Director General of Police (Cyber Crime division) V Neeraja said, “Reporting Cyber Crimes in real-time, in ‘golden hour’, was very crucial to freeze money in the suspect’s accounts.”

Notably, Rs 5.25 crore was recovered and transferred back to Oswal as authorities froze the money after receiving an early complaint.

In another cyber fraud case registered on September 20, Ludhiana businessman Rajnish Ahuja was duped Rs 1.01 crore, and authorities managed to recover Rs 34 lakh.

“All cyber frauds reported on the National Cyber Crime Portal (NCRP) are immediately attended and money is frozen in the suspects’ accounts as long as it is in the banking channels,” said Neeraja.

Helpline number 1930, connected to the NCRP portal, receives around 100 cyber fraud cases from Punjab. The ADGP said the maximum complaints were reported from Mohali, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala and Amritsar. The ADGP said most cyber fraudsters were “operating from places in Assam and West Bengal, apart from some places in Jharkhand”.

Helpline 1930 is connected with 340 financial institutions, including banks and merchants, and if cyber fraud is reported in real time, the money in the suspect’s account is frozen.

Once the complaint is made on the NCRP and 1930 helpline, the Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC) acts as a war room to monitor such frauds. The CFMC is tasked to mitigate cyber frauds with concerted efforts and real-time coordination among stakeholders like law enforcement agencies of States/Union Territories, the Department of Telecommunications, banks, Telecom Service Providers, etc. More than 40 representatives from banks, the telecom industry, IT intermediaries and social media are stationed at the CFMC for joint action on financial frauds.

The ADGP said people need to be aware of cyber fraud. “One should understand no law enforcement agency will go for a digital arrest using Skype,” she added.

Amid alarming incidents of cyber frauds, the Cyber Crime division of the Punjab Police is set to launch an aggressive campaign in public places to spread awareness about such frauds, said the ADGP, adding: “The only way to prevent people from falling victim to cyber frauds is through public awareness campaigns which we have been holding from time to time.”

Mule accounts, a challenge

As per cybercrime investigators in Punjab, the fraudster uses ‘mule’ accounts to receive and further transfer victims’ money to several other ‘mule’ accounts. Investigators say fraudsters use the details of other persons to open ‘mule’ accounts in their names and operate such accounts themselves to receive and further transfer fraud money, layering the scam further.

“So, cyber fraud must be reported in real-time so that the fraudsters don’t get adequate time to transfer the amount further in several other ‘mule’ accounts,” said an official. Hence, freezing the money at the earliest is very crucial, according to an official.