Tamil Nadu man gets threat call from ‘police officer’, loses money; four held

According to the police, the victim identified as S Santhana Swarna Kumar, 28, of Thanthondrimalai of Karur district had received a call a couple of days ago from a person who introduced himself as Murugan, the sub-inspector of Tambaram crime police station.

“The person told Surendhar, a cab driver, that he had been added to a WhatsApp group where pornographic content are uploaded and hence he was required to report to the station in Chennai immediately for inquiry. The person had further said that if he failed to report, he would be arrested by the local police. After a few minutes, the person had said they could arrive at an amicable solution if Surendhar immediately transferred Rs 5,000 through GPay to the mobile number he sends,” an officer said.

Fearing police arrest, Surendhar had transferred the amount demanded by the person, he said.

However, when the person demanded more money, Surendhar grew suspicious, and looked for the details of the person on the ‘Truecaller’ application and found the number to be spam. He immediately reached the local police station to lodge a complaint.

The Karur Cyber Crime launched an investigation and found that the accused had indulged in similar activities in Erode, Coimbatore, and Tiruchirapalli districts. The gang played a walkie-talkie sound effect from YouTube while speaking to people to make them believe that the call was from a police station, police said.