Bengaluru:

Within five hours while sitting at home in India, retired professor Kamta Prasad Singh handed over his hard-earned savings to online fraudsters impersonating police. The cybercrime known as “digital arrest” — where fraudsters pose online as law enforcement officials and order people to transfer huge amounts of money — has become so rampant that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has issued warnings.

Singh told AFP that money was his life savings.

“Over the years, I have skipped having tea outside, walked to avoid spending on public transport,” the 62-year-old said, his voice breaking.

“Only I know how I saved my money.”

Police say scammers have exploited the vast gap between the breakneck speed of India’s data digitalisation, from personal details to online banking, and the lagging awareness of many of basic internet safety.

Fraudsters are using technology for data breaches, targeting information their victims believe is only available to government authorities, and making otherwise unlikely demands appear credible.

Indians have emptied their bank accounts “out of sheer fear”, PM Modi said in an October radio broadcast, adding fraudsters “create so much psychological pressure on the victim”.

‘Ruined’

Mobile phones, and especially video calling, have allowed fraudsters to reach straight into people’s homes.

India runs the world’s largest biometric digital identity programme — called “Aadhaar”, or foundation in Hindi — a unique card issued to India’s more than one billion people, and increasingly required for financial transactions.

Scammers often claim they are police investigating questionable payments, quoting their target’s Aadhaar number to appear genuine. They then request their victim make a “temporary” bank transfer to validate their accounts, before stealing the cash.

Singh, from India’s eastern state of Bihar, said the web of lies began when he received a call in December, seemingly from the telecom regulatory authority.

“They said… police were on their way to arrest me,” Singh said.

The fraudsters told Singh that his Aadhaar ID was being misused for illegal payments.

Terrified, Singh agreed to prove he had control of his bank account, and after spiralling threats, transferred over $16,100 (Rs 13,92,532).

“I have lost sleep, don’t feel like eating,” he said. “I have been ruined.”

‘Rot in proverbial hell’

The surge of online scams is worrying because of “how valid they make it look and sound”, said police officer Sushil Kumar, who handled cybercrimes for half a decade. The perpetrators range from school dropouts to highly educated individuals.

“They know what to search for on the internet to find out basic details of how government agencies work,” Kumar added.

India registered 17,470 cybercrimes in 2022, including 6,491 cases of online bank fraud, according to the latest government data.

Tricks vary. Kaveri, 71, told AFP her story on condition her name was changed.

She said fraudsters posed as officials from the US courier FedEx, claiming she had sent a package containing drugs, passports and credit cards.

They offered her full name and Aadhaar ID details as “proof”, followed by well-forged letters from the Central Bank of India and Central Bureau of Investigation, the country’s top investigative agency.

“They wanted me to send money, which would be returned in 30 minutes,” she said, adding she was convinced when they sent a “properly signed letter”.

She transferred savings from a house sale totalling around $120,000 in four instalments over six days before the fraudsters vanished.

Kaveri says those days felt “like a tunnel”.

Meeta, 35, a private health professional from Bengaluru who also did not want to be identified, was conned by fake police via a video call.

“It seemed like a proper police station, with walkie-talkie noises,” she said.

The scammers told her to prove she controlled her bank account by taking out a 200,000 rupee ($2,300) loan via her bank’s phone app, before demanding she make a “temporary” transfer.

Despite making it clear to the bank that she had been scammed, Meeta continues to be asked to pay back the loan.

“My trust in banks has mostly gone,” she said, before cursing the thieves.

“I hope they rot in proverbial hell.”

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

Noida:

A woman was duped of Rs 34 lakh here in a case of “digital arrest” by cyber criminals who threatened her with fake notices by the Enforcement Directorate, officials said on Sunday.

The fraudsters claimed that a parcel was being sent from Mumbai to Iran in her name containing five passports, two debit cards, two laptops, 900 US dollars, and 200 grams of narcotics, they said.

The victim received a call from the fraudsters at around 10 pm on August 8, she said in her complaint.

The Gautam Buddha cyber crime police station has registered a case and started an investigation into the matter, Inspector-in-charge Vijay Kumar Gautam said.

According to the complaint of Nidhi Paliwal, a resident of Sector-41, the fraudsters sent her a complaint via WhatsApp and asked her to send Rs 34 lakh.

An accused also video-called her on Skype with the video switched off, Paliwal said in her complaint.

Inspector Gautam said the accused also sent two notices to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in which serious allegations were made against the victim. A probe on the matter is underway, he said.

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

Bareilly:

Jagdish Singh Patani, retired deputy SP and father of actor Disha Patani, was allegedly defrauded of Rs 25 lakh by a group of five individuals who promised him a high-ranking position in a government commission, police here said on Friday.

An FIR was registered at Bareilly Kotwali police station on Friday evening.

Kotwali police station in-charge D K Sharma said, “A case has been registered against Shivendra Pratap Singh, Diwakar Garg, Acharya Jayaprakash from Juna Akhara, Preeti Garg, and one unidentified person for cheating, criminal intimidation, and extortion.” “Efforts are underway to arrest the accused and take strict action,” Sharma added.

Jagdish Patani, a resident of Bareilly’s Civil Lines area, alleged that Shivendra Pratap Singh, whom he knew personally, introduced him to Diwakar Garg and Acharya Jayaprakash, according to the complaint.

The accused claimed to have strong political connections and assured Patani of securing a position as chairman, vice-chairman, or a similar prestigious post in a government commission.

After gaining Patani’s trust, the group allegedly took Rs 25 lakh from him –” Rs 5 lakh in cash and Rs 20 lakh through transfers to three different bank accounts. When no progress was made over three months, the accused promised to return the money with interest, the complaint stated.

However, when Patani demanded his money back, they began issuing threats and behaving aggressively, police said.

Patani further alleged that the conmen misled him by introducing an accomplice as an “officer on special duty” named Himanshu to reinforce their false claims of political connections.

Suspecting a larger fraud, he lodged a complaint with the police, leading to the registration of the FIR.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

A love-struck man from Tianjin lost a considerable sum of money in a bizarre ritual for a cunning online romance scam, according to the South China Morning Post. The victim, surnamed Wang, was found by police to have been misled by a false story involving an ex-husband who was dead and a superstitious “marriage bed burning” ceremony.

Wang’s online romance with Li, a woman who portrayed herself as wealthy and single and who owns multiple properties. Li was ready for a new married life, but she asked for a rather bizarre favour-Wang was to perform a ‘marriage bed burning’ ritual to appease the spirit of her former husband-a necessary step, she claimed, to ensure a prosperous marriage.

According to SCMP, Wang was told all Li’s properties were inherited from her ex, and the ritual would be a “thank you gesture” for him, the mainland media outlet Hongxing News reported on October 31. She told Wang he needed to spend 100,000 yuan (Rs 11,81,858) on the ritual to show his sincerity. She required Wang to transfer her the money without showing up at the ritual because it would bring bad luck to him.

After Wang sent over the money, Li disappeared, and Wang was left heartbroken and penniless.

This incident highlights the increasing sophistication of online scams and the vulnerability of those seeking love and companionship in the virtual world. Though ancient superstitions-even primitive rituals-are the main traditions in some parts of China, they are, in fact, unwittingly used by fraudsters to manipulate their victims.

The more one seeks his/her perfect match online, the more cautious that individual needs to be. Experts say that when meeting acquaintances from the Internet, identities must be verified. Personal data must not be communicated unless absolutely necessary, and any requests for money or other such transactions must be suspect.

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New Delhi:

Rishi Shah, an Indian-American businessman, has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for a Rs 8,300 crore ($1 billion) fraud involving his advertising startup. The fraud scheme deceived high-profile investors such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s venture capital firm.

Mr Shah, the co-founder of Outcome Health, was indicted on over 12 counts of fraud and money laundering. He was convicted in April 2023, along with his company co-founders Shradha Agarwal and Brad Purdy. The judge sentenced Agarwal to three years in a halfway house and Purdy to two years and three months in prison. 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a civil lawsuit against Shah, Agarwal, Purdy and former chief growth officer Ashik Desai, who pleaded guilty before the trial.

Who is Rishi Shah?

1. Rishi Shah is a technology investor and entrepreneur who co-founded JumpStart Ventures in 2011. As the Chairman and Managing Director of the company, he made over 60 direct investments in health technology, education technology and media.

2. Rishi Shah, the son of a doctor, attended Harvard’s summer economics programme in 2005. He then studied at Northwestern University for a year before dropping out to start his own business.

3. In 2006, Shah founded Outcome Health, formerly known as Context Media Health. The company installed TVs at doctors’ offices to stream health ads targeted at patients. Under his leadership, Outcome Health grew significantly in valuation and became a crucial player in the tech and healthcare investment communities by the mid-2010s.

4. The 38-year-old serves on the Board of Directors of Young Presidents Organisation (YPO), 1871 and MATTER, a community of healthcare innovators and incubator for ideas. He also advises technology startup accelerator/incubator programs, nonprofits and universities.

5. Rishi Shah’s net worth was falsely inflated to over $4 billion in 2016. The truth emerged in 2017 when the Wall Street Journal exposed fraudulent activities at Outcome Health. Investors, including Goldman Sachs and Alphabet, sued the company for fraud, revealing that Shah and his co-founder had profited while investors were left with worthless stakes.

Online fraud is increasing in today’s world where digital transactions have become the norm. Scammers are getting smarter. They use clever tricks to deceive people and steal their money, like sending fake emails, setting up bogus websites, and using sneaky software to swipe your sensitive info like credit card numbers and passwords. Now, a new scamming trend is on the rise, shared by a Bengaluru woman, named Aditi Chopra.

Ms Chopra shared an incident on X, formerly Twitter, recounting how she narrowly avoided falling victim to a financial scam that preys on unsuspecting people through SMS. She detailed how she was in the middle of an office call when she received a phone call from “an elderly sounding guy” claiming to need to transfer money to her father. The man said in Hindi, “Aditi, dear, I needed to send money to your father but he is not available, so he asked me to send it to you. Dear, please check, is this your number?” 

He cited issues with his own bank account and requested Aditi’s help in receiving the funds. Shortly after the call, Ms Chopra received SMS alerts, which seemingly showed confirmation of her getting funds into her account. “I first received an SMS mentioning an INR 10k credit, then an INR 30k credit, all while he’s on the call,” she wrote on X. 

The caller then informed Ms Chopra of an alleged mistake, claiming to have sent ₹30,000 instead of ₹3,000. “Dear, I was supposed to send only INR 3,000, but mistakenly sent INR 30,000. Please return the extra money. I am standing at the doctor’s place, I need to give him the money,” he allegedly said.

Upon close inspection, Ms Chopra noticed that the SMS alerts did not come from a legitimate bank, but rather from a 10-digit phone number. She recognised the red flags, saying, “Of course when I called back in a minute’s time after checking my accounts, I was blocked.”

She further added, “One could falter and give in but (I know) my dad, he over explains everything and triple checks in matters of money, whatever be the amount,” claiming “he would have called beforehand and given me more context than needed.”

Read the full post here

Another day, another financial fraud scheme ????

TLDR: Please read and make sure you don’t trust any SMSes regarding financial transactions.

Incident: Was busy on an office call when this elderly sounding guy calls me and says, ‘Aditi beta, papa ko paise bhejne the par unko ja… pic.twitter.com/5CYwwwvjG7

— Aditi Chopra | Web3 Community ????️ (@aditichoprax) May 2, 2024

Ms Chopra urged others to be wary of similar scams, stating, “Always check your actual bank account on a separate device and never go by any SMSes. That system is very easily gameable.”

Former cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, 32, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for his involvement in a major financial scam related to the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange. He was found guilty in November on seven counts, including fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering.

How Sam Bankman-Fried pulled off the scam

Bankman-Fried got into the world of cryptocurrency at the age of 25. He founded a company called Alameda Research and soon realised he could make a lot of money by exploiting differences in Bitcoin prices between different countries.

This strategy, called arbitrage trading, earned him $20 million in just three weeks, according to BBC. He launched FTX in 2019, a crypto exchange in Hong Kong that attracted investors due to his charismatic personality and promises of big returns.

His ex-girlfriend, former CEO of Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison, described him as an extreme risk taker, saying, “He would be happy to flip a coin, if it came up tails and the world was destroyed, as long as if it came up heads, the world would be more than twice as good.”

Read | Sam Bankman-Fried Deserves 40-50 Years In Prison For FTX Fraud: Prosecutors

Bankman-Fried, known for his casual dressing style and disorganisation, had a loyal following within FTX, prompting some to compare their loyalty to him as almost cult-like. Even external observers, like venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, saw him as a visionary striving to make a positive impact.

But cracks began to appear in Mr Bankman-Fried’s empire when reports revealed conflicts of interest between his companies, raising doubts about their integrity. The confidence in Bankman-Fried’s ventures further dropped when a rival announced plans to sell off holdings in FTX’s crypto token.

Despite claiming to have altruistic motives, Mr Bankman-Fried was slammed when it was revealed that Alameda, his company, had a large investment in FTT, the token issued by FTX. This sparked concerns about conflicts of interest between the two companies.

FTX ultimately collapsed in November 2022.

Sam Bankman-Fried’s downfall

The downfall began on November 7, 2022 when a rival executive tweeted about FTX’s financial stability, triggering panic among customers and sparking a massive bank run that drained billions from the platform. Despite efforts to stem the bleeding, the damage was irreversible, resulting in over $8 billion in missing customer funds and the bankruptcy of the company.

Read | From Sam Bankman-Fried To Do Kwan, Crypto Kings Humbled By Law

During Mr Bankman-Fried’s trial, two conflicting narratives emerged about his involvement, with some calling him a brilliant but unwitting CEO, while others accusing him of knowingly siphoning billions of dollars of customer money.

Regardless, the collapse revealed the extent to which FTX’s fortunes were tied to its founder.

New Delhi:

The Delhi Police has arrested a 33-year-old man who allegedly defrauded around Rs 14.80 lakh from seven persons on the pretext of getting them jobs in the regional office of World Health Organization, a senior officer said on Monday.

“We have arrested a fraudster identified as Gaurav Kumar. He impersonated a doctor working in the head office of WHO and duped seven persons in lieu of providing them jobs in the regional office of WHO. He used the cheated amount in renovation of his house,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) Joy Tirkey.

According to police, a complaint regarding cheating of Rs 14.80 lakh from seven persons was received at Jyoti Nagar Police Station.

The complainants told the police that they had come in contact with a person in a park who represented himself as a doctor working in a head office of WHO.

He lured them with the offer of a job in the regional office of the organisation, with handsome salaries and other perks.

He also showed them a identity card bearing the UN agency’s fake credentials and assured them that they all would a job offer letter in mail.

All seven of them succumbed to the offer and transferred Rs 14.30 lakh through UPI in five installments to his account and gave him Rs 50,000 in cash, DCP Tirkey said.

“As promised, they got their offer letters through e-mail. But when they cross checked with the organisation, they were found to be fake. They came to know that they were cheated. When the victims called him, he threatened them of dire consequences,” said the officer.

Kumar was arrested from Meet Nagar area. During interrogation, he confessed to his crime and revealed that he had studied Bachelor of Occupational Therapy from a Ghaziabad-based Medical College and was jobless.

To dupe people, he got a fake WHO identity card which he used to wear in his neck to impress people.

“We have recovered a mobile phone, fake Id Card of WHO in his name from him. Further investigation is underway,” said the

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

Gurugram:

An alleged fraudster, claiming to be the Human Resources head of a multi-national company, duped HSBC Bank of more than Rs 2 crore, police said.

The accused opened 38 salary accounts in the names of “employees”, got 28 credit cards issued and took two loans. But neither were the loans cleared nor the payment for the credit cards made, police said.

An FIR was registered at the Sushant Lok police station in this regard, they added.

According to the complaint filed by Saurabh Abrol, an authorised representative of HSBC Bank, a fraud of more than Rs 2 crore was committed by the accused. Some credit card and loan holders were not paying the bank and could not even be contacted.

When the bank investigated at its own level, a major fraud was detected which took place between December 2022 and June 2023, he said.

Mr Abrol said in his complaint that a person named Sachin Kathuria, posing as the HR head of a multi-national company, had met the staff of the bank at the Sector 44 branch.

He got salary accounts opened in the bank in the names of 38 people, presenting them as the company’s employees.

Money was credited as salaries in these accounts every month, according to the complaint.

“On the basis of the regular transactions, 28 credit cards and two loans were issued by the bank, whose repayment was not made. When the bank proceeded with an investigation at its level, it was found that the money coming into these accounts in the name of salary was immediately withdrawn through debit cards,” Mr Abrol said.

“The addresses given by these employees while opening bank accounts were also fake. When we checked the photographs of all these account holders, they did not match. We also started an inquiry against four bank officials who opened these accounts, issued credit cards and loans,” he said in his complaint.

After a preliminary investigation, an FIR has been registered against Kathuria and others under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged document) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code on Friday, police said.

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

Representative file image.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

About 100 companies dealing in agro-products came under the scanner of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over the past five years on the charge of cheating banks of loans running into thousands of crores of rupees. This year, so far, more than two dozen firms trading in items ranging from rice and spices to oil have been accused of bank fraud involving over ₹1,400 crore.

One of the major cases registered earlier this year pertains to S.A. Rawther Spices Private Limited, which exports and imports spices and coffee. The company took credit facilities from the Jammu & Kashmir Bank. As alleged, the company and its functionaries caused a loss of ₹352.72 crore to the bank. It failed to repay the loan on a regular basis and the account was declared a non-performing asset in September 2017.

Among the others, Shree Basant Oils Limited has been accused of bank fraud to the tune of ₹124 crore, and Saurav (India) Private Limited has allegedly caused wrongful loss of about ₹126 crore to its lenders.

Last year too, multiple cases were registered against the business groups trading in agro-products. One such case pertained to Shri Jalaram Rice Industries in an alleged ₹114-crore bank fraud case.

On December 31, 2021, the CBI had booked Shakti Bhog Foods Limited and others for allegedly cheating a consortium of 10 banks to the tune of ₹3,269.42 crore. Among those named in the FIR are the company’s managing director, Kewal Krishan Kumar, and directors Siddharth Kumar and Sunanda Kumar. The company is into the manufacture and sale of items like wheat flour (under the well-known brand name Shakti Bhog), rice, biscuits and cookies in northern States. In the other States, it has third party tie-ups with various entities.

“In all these cases, the lending banks have alleged diversion of funds through different modus operandi. Shell companies are used to route the misappropriated money, which is many a times round-tripped and invested in related entities. Also, properties are acquired by the accused persons using the funds. In order to get more credit facilities, the companies often inflate their net worth,” an agency official said.