Ahmedabad:

A builder in Ahmedabad lost Rs 1 crore after he fell prey to a ‘digital arrest’ scam in which some people posing to be from the police and the Narcotics Control Bureau told him that 550 grams of a drug was found in a parcel in his name. 

Police officials said the fraudsters appeared to have been keeping tabs on the builder and also cited a Rs 50-crore land deal concluded by him to gain his confidence.

On July 3, the builder got a call from a man who claimed to be a representative of a popular international courier company. The man told the builder that 550 grams of the drug MD were recovered from a parcel in his name and said he was transferring the call to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which had registered a case against him.

In his police complaint, filed recently, the builder said he then got a video call from a man wearing a police uniform, who claimed to be an NCB officer and asked him to record a statement online. The ‘officer’ also pointed to alleged suspicious transactions in the builder’s bank accounts and threatened that agencies like the police, CBI, Enforcement Directorate and NCB would investigate him.

Officials said that, after sufficiently scaring the builder, the man convinced him to transfer Rs 1 crore, returnable in 10 days, to avoid being prosecuted. The scammer also spoke about a recent Rs 50-crore land deal in which the builder was involved to make him believe that he was speaking to someone in law enforcement. 

The scammers made no contact with the builder after that and, when his attempts to reach them failed, he realised that he had been conned. He approached the Ahmedabad cyber crime cell recently, over four months later, to file a complaint. 

(With inputs from Mahendra Prasad)

Chandigarh:

Punjab Police’s Cybercrime Division has busted an inter-state gang involved in digital arrest cyber fraud with the arrest of two Assam-based men for their involvement in the fraud, said Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav here on Monday.

Those arrested have been identified as Nazrul Ali and Midul Ali, both residents of Kamrup in Assam.

Digital arrest refers to a cyber scam where fraudsters, posing as law enforcement officials, deceive victims into believing they have committed a serious crime and must stay visible online until their demands are met, exploiting fear to extort money.

As per the information, a 76-year-old retired government officer lodged a complaint with the state Cybercrime Division that some people claiming to be from the Mumbai Cyber Crime had duped him of Rs 76 lakh by putting him under digital arrest via WhatsApp call. The caller accused the victim of conniving with a criminal who indulged in money laundering and also claimed that a subpoena had been issued in his name by the Bombay High Court.

The fraud caller impersonating a police official from the Mumbai cybercrime gave him account numbers from different banks and directed him to deposit money in the said banks to clear him of the charges. As directed, the victim deposited Rs 76 lakh in different bank accounts.

DGP Yadav said following the complaint, the state Cyber Crime Division registered a first information report (FIR) and started investigations into this case.

He said the investigation has revealed the interstate linkages of the arrested accused in other cyber frauds as the bank account belonging to the arrested accused suggested their involvement in at least 11 other cyber fraud cases spread across seven states in which around Rs 15 crore have been scammed from the victims.

The DGP said during the investigation, that information obtained regarding bank accounts, WhatsApp accounts, and mobile numbers of the cyber fraudsters revealed that the gang has been running their operation from the remote districts of Assam.

The investigation of IP Logs provided by WhatsApp and Skype also revealed that these fake threat calls originated from Cambodia and Hong Kong, he added.

Sharing operation details, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Cybercrime Division V Neeraja said a team from Police Station State Cyber Crime, Punjab headed by Inspector Jujhar Singh went to Assam last week and arrested both the accused persons from Kamrup district of Assam.

She said the accused Nazrul Ali was the owner of the ‘current bank account’ used to siphon off the money at layer one, and Midul Ali had assisted him in opening of bank account by providing his documents.

Both the accused have been brought to Mohali on transit remand for interrogation in this case, she said, while adding that more arrests are likely in the coming days.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jaipur:

Cyber criminals have duped an IIT Jodhpur professor of nearly Rs 12 lakh after being held under ‘digit arrest’ for 12 days.

The cyber criminals, posing as Mumbai Crime Branch officials, told the victim that she was a suspect in a money laundering case.

A parcel belonging to the woman professor had arrived in Mumbai in which drugs, passport and credit cards had been found. Therefore, she will have to remain under surveillance otherwise she would be arrested, the cyber criminals said.

Sub-Inspector Mahendra Kumar of Karvad police station said: “An incident of digital arrest has been reported with IIT Jodhpur’s Assistant Professor Amrita Puri, the 35-year-old wife of Nitesh Anirav and a resident of Patiala, Punjab.

She currently lives in the IIT campus at Jodhpur.

Professor Amrita in her complaint alleged that she received several calls from different numbers on August 1.

“When I received the call, the caller introduced himself as a policeman,” she said.

The caller told the professor: “A parcel of yours has arrived in Mumbai. Drugs have been found in this parcel. There are also many passports and credit cards. You should report it to Mumbai Cyber ​​Crime Branch. The cyber criminal himself transferred the call to the Cyber branch.”

“There the other person introduced himself as the DCP of Mumbai’s Cyber ​​Crime Branch. He said: “You are trapped in a money laundering case. So you have to cooperate, otherwise you will be arrested and sent to jail.” I got scared and kept doing whatever those people told me to do,” the professor said.

The cyber criminals took control of my mobile phone and kept my camera on, she added.

According to the police, the scammers talked about keeping the professor under constant surveillance.

“The cyber criminals took control of her mobile phone, kept the camera on and shared the screen. Not only this, her laptop was also taken under control through Skype app. The professor could not even contact anyone. Whatever the professor did, it was under the surveillance of the cyber criminals. The professor was put under surveillance from August 1.”

However, the cyber criminals shunted all access as soon as the money was transferred 10 days later, i.e. on August 11, when there was talks of financial verification, following which details of all the professor’s accounts and funds were taken.

On Tuesday, around Rs 11,97,000 were transferred through a cheque to one of the professor’s accounts in Yes Bank through Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS).

As soon as the money was transferred to the cyber criminals, they removed access from all communication devices of the professor.

Later, the professor realised that she had been cheated following which she informed the Cyber police station.

Further investigations are underway.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)