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Hyderabad, October 30 (IANS) Cyber criminals defrauded a 78-year-old pensioner of Rs 51 lakh in a digital arrest fraud. The victim, a retired central government employee and resident of Srinagar Colony in Hyderabad, received a call from a fraudster posing as an ACP of Mumbai Crime Branch, threatening that his mobile phone SIM was used in bomb blasts and kidnapping cases.
The fraudster also told the victim that other people had taken SIM cards in his name. He also showed CBI notices and accused him of money laundering.
The victim was placed under digital arrest by the culprit, who made the video call. The fraudster did not allow him to call anyone and took all his bank account information.
To save himself from the case, the accused asked the senior citizen to transfer 95 per cent of the money from his account and assured him that the money would be returned after investigation.
Fearing getting entangled in the case, the victim transferred Rs 51 lakh. They later realized that they had been defrauded and contacted the cyber crime police.
Police have registered the case and started investigation.
This is the second such case reported in the city this week. Earlier, a 73-year-old woman was defrauded of Rs 1.43 crore.
The fraudsters, posing as police officers, threatened that her Aadhaar card had been traced to a criminal involved in child trafficking and murder cases and that she would be arrested.
On October 22, the victims received a call from an unknown caller, who introduced himself as Akash Chaudhary, an officer from Gandhi Nagar police station in Bengaluru. He told her that a criminal involved in the trafficking and murder of 187 children had his Aadhaar card and an FIR had been registered against him.
The impersonator also showed an arrest warrant and a CBI account freezer order. Fearing that he would be caught, he transferred the money to the fraudster.
Earlier this week, Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar said cyber criminals created fake WhatsApp accounts using his photograph as the display picture and took advantage of his identity to send messages to people to withdraw money. He urged citizens not to respond to such messages and block and report the numbers immediately.
–IANS
MS/PGH