CBI books 5 for looting $400k from US woman

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked five persons for allegedly posing as Microsoft tech support and siphoning off USD 400,000 (nearly Rs 3.37 crore) retirement funds of a US citizen.

“A case of fraud has been registered against Delhi-based Praful Gupta, Sarita Gupta, Kunal Almadi, Gaurav Pahwa and Kanpur-based Rishabh Dixit on the basis of inputs from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The CBI conducted searches on their premises in Dilshad Garden and Janakpuri in Delhi, and Kidwai Nagar in Kanpur,” a CBI spokesperson said.

“It is alleged that victim Lisa Roth’s laptop was hacked, following which she called a number on the screen and a person feigning affiliation with Microsoft misguided her by informing there were some wire transfers from her account. The imposter advised her to contact Fidelity Investments. When Roth called the number provided by the purported Microsoft employee, she was instructed to transfer money from her Fidelity Investments account to a more secure account,” the FIR said.