Nov 27, 2024 01:52 PM IST
The man travelled all the way to Bihar to transfer money from a bank account before realising he was getting scammed and was put under ‘digital arrest’.
Not just did this Faridabad man transfer all his money to someone he thought was a regulatory official, but also travelled all the way to Bihar on a train to repeat the same for another bank account before realising he was getting scammed and was put under ‘digital arrest’ – a cybercrime menace that has led to dozens of people losing money lately.
The 55-year-old man, who works as a bank clerk and lives with his family at a residential complex in Sector 80 of Haryana’s Faridabad, has previously worked with the Indian Air Force (IAF) , according to a Times of India report.
Also Read: As ‘digital arrest’ cases surge, know ways to detect a fraud attempt
Day after returning from election duty on October 5, the day Haryana voted for the Assembly poll, the man received a video call from someone claiming to be from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the report said, adding that his wife and son had gone to a temple at that time.
At at the other end were two male voices, one identified himself as a CBI officer – a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) and the other as an officer with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
The duo told the man that another phone number had been activated using his Aadhar card and several offences had been committed through it.
“I was told on the video call that a warrant was issued against me in a ₹6.6-crore money laundering case in which a wanted criminal, Nawab Malik, was involved. I was asked to go to the CBI office in Delhi in two hours. When I expressed my inability to do so within that short period, the man posing as a CBI officer threatened to arrest me for non-cooperation,” according to the police complaint of the victim cited in the TOI report.
The man panicked and agreed to do what the impostor said to settle the case. The first thing the victim was asked to do was check into a hotel to get privacy during the “probe” and protect self from humiliation of the family.
The man agreed, checked into a hotel in Sector 81 the same morning and stayed there till the next morning. By October 7, the man had revealed to the scammers that he had ₹5 lakh in his Punjab National Bank account, the report said, adding that he was then asked to transfer the entire money to a bank account for ‘investigation’.
The victim said he was told Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would verify if the money transferred by him was linked to money laundering, and if they cleared it, the amount would be reverted to his account.
Man boards train to Bihar
Panicking further due to fear and pressure, the victim also told the scammers about another account he had with State Bank of India (SBI) in Bihar’s Madhubani. As he could not operate this account from Faridabad, he was asked to immediately go to Bihar.
He left for Bihar, reached there on October 8, with the scammers staying in touch with him via video call throughout.
“I was asked to visit my native place in Madhubani to initiate another set of fund transfers from my home branch of SBI as I could not do the same from SBI’s branch in Faridabad. I reached my native place by train on October 8 but could not do the transfer that day. All this while, the fraudsters stayed in continuous contact through video call,” the victim said.
The man realised he had been placed under ‘digital arrest’ when some villagers took hold of his phone and called a family member. He returned to Faridabad on October 10 and lodged a police complaint.
The cyber police registered a case under section 318 (4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on November 25.
A cyber police officer said details of the bank transactions and phone calls are being analysed to identify the fraudsters.
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