Organ donation racket used as pretext to cheat Pune businessman for Rs 13 lakh

The complainant was told that transactions from his bank account will be investigated and for that a portion of funds from his account will have to transfered to some government account. He was told that once his name was cleared in the investigation, the money will be returned to his bank accounts. Over a period of three days earlier this year, the complainant was manipulated into transferring Rs 12.99 to fraudulent bank accounts.

Some time later, the online contacts he was interacting with went incommunicado.

After realising that he had been cheated, he approached the police. After verification of his complaint, an FIR was registered at Alankar police station.

Senior Inspector Sunita Rokde, who is investigating the case said that they were probing the bank accounts and online contacts used by cyber criminals.

In an advisory issued about such online blackmail cases, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in May, “A large number of complaints are being reported on National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) regarding intimidation, blackmail, extortion and ‘digital arrests’ by cyber criminals posing as Police Authorities, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Narcotics Department, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Enforcement Directorate and other Law Enforcement Agencies.”

The advisory further read, “These fraudsters typically call a potential victim and inform that the victim has sent or is the intended recipient of a parcel, which contains illegal goods, drugs, fake passports or any other contraband item. Sometimes, they also inform that a near or dear one of the victims has been found to be involved in a crime or an accident and is in their custody. A demand for money is made to compromise the “case”. In certain instances, unsuspecting victims are made to undergo “Digital Arrest” and remain visually available over call, Skype or other video conferencing platform to the fraudsters, till their demands are met. The fraudsters are known to use studios modelled on Police Stations and Government offices and wear uniforms to appear genuine. Across the country, several victims have lost large amounts of money to such criminals. This is an organised online economic crime and is learnt to be operated by cross-border crime syndicates.”