HYDERABAD: Cybercriminals cheated a 73-year-old woman of Rs 1.43 crore in the Digital Arrest fraud. Impersonating the police, they threatened that her Aadhaar card was found with a criminal involved in child trafficking and murder cases, and that she would be arrested.
Out of fear of being apprehended, she transferred the money to them. She said that on October 22, she received a call from an unknown caller, introducing himself as Akash Choudhary, an officer from Gandhi Nagar police station in Bengaluru.
Claiming that a criminal involved in the trafficking and murder of 187 children carried her Aadhaar card, he told her that an FIR had been registered against her.
Upon denying the involvement, the fraudster told her, “You hail from a respectable family. It will be inappropriate to arrest you.” He assured her that her name would be removed from the case if she cooperated. The victim said that the fraudster was wearing a police uniform and had video-called her on WhatsApp. “He even showed me an arrest warrant and a CBI account freeze order,” she said.
The fraudster claimed she received Rs 3 crore and showed photographs of the transactions. He even made her write a letter, stating that she would cooperate, and deleted the photographs from the WhatsApp inbox. “The impersonator pressured me to provide my bank account details and warned that it was a national issue,” she complained to Hyderabad Cybercrime police.
Impersonator dupes techie of `3.5 lakh
Hyderabad: A 37-year-old software employee from Madhapur was duped of `3.5 lakh in a “WhatsApp scam”. On October 19, he complained to the Cyberabad Cybercrime police that he had received a message on WhatsApp from an unknown international number, which displayed the image of his company’s CEO. The fraudster, posing as the CEO, requested the victim to urgently purchase multiple Apple vouchers for clients. Believing the request to be genuine, the victim purchased vouchers worth `3,50,000.
