Cyber fraudsters dupe Army veteran of Rs 3.1 crore after threatening to book him in money laundering case

The caller then connected him to a person who was posing as an ‘officer from Nehru Nagar police station’ in Mumbai. The fake ‘officer’ identified himself as a serving IPS officer currently posted in Pune. The fraudster told the victim that his name had come up in a major money laundering case and that an arrest warrant had been issued against him.

The victim was then asked to download a video calling application and was made to call to an address. In the video call, a man wearing a police uniform was talking on a Walkie Talkie and was intermittently saying ‘over over.’ The fraudster then told the complainant that they can help him clear his name in ‘priority investigation.’ The complainant was then asked to go into a closed room and not disclose to anyone what was going on. He was then threatened with the ‘CBI investigation’ and was told that it was an issue linked to national security. At one point he was even told that there was a threat to his life.

Over the next two weeks in close to a dozen transactions, the victim was coerced, manipulated and threatened into transferring a total of over Rs 3.1 crore to fraudulent accounts in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and West Bengal. As the fraudsters kept asking for money, the complainant realised that he had been cheated and approached the Cyber Crime police.

An officer said that a probe had been launched in the case. Cyber investigators said that exploiting the concept of social engineering in the information security domain the cyber criminals manipulate victims, in this case by threatening legal action and arrest.
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On May 14 earlier this year, the Department of Telecommunications issued an advisory to citizens to not to take and respond to fake calls wherein callers are threatening to disconnect their mobile numbers, or that their mobile numbers are being misused in illegal activities.