89-yr-old woman loses Rs.77L in 'digital arrest'
Chandigarh, July 18 -- In yet another case of a high-value cyber fraud, an 89-year-old widow from Sector 34-D was duped of her entire life savings worth Rs.77.42 lakh by conmen posing as officials from the Mumbai crime branch and CBI. On July 10, the victim-a retired teacher-received a call from a mobile number, where the caller claimed to be from the Mumbai crime branch. She was told her Aadhaar card had been misused to purchase SIM cards and open bank accounts in Mumbai, allegedly linked to a money laundering case involving Jet Airways CEO Naresh Goyal.
The caller threatened her with arrest, citing a registered FIR in Mumbai, and put her in touch with two men, Vijay Khanna and Vishal Gupta, via WhatsApp video call. Both were dressed in police uniforms and identified themselves as an SHO and investigation officer, respectively.
They showed her fabricated arrest warrants, a petition to the Chief Justice of India, and a fake order. The fraudsters kept the elderly woman on continuous WhatsApp calls from July 10 to July 14, issuing minute-to-minute instructions. They forced her to declare all her bank deposits, encash her fixed deposits, transfer her entire savings to "secret supervision accounts" for 24-48 hours and swear an oath that she would not disclose the "CBI investigation" to anyone.
Under pressure, she made four RTGS transfers from her accounts to the fraudsters.
In total, Rs.77.42 lakh was siphoned off. The cyber police station has registered a case under Sections 308, 319 (2), 318 (4), 336 (3), 338, 340 (2), and 61 (2) of the BNS.htc...
To read the full article or to get the complete feed from this publication, please
Contact Us.