Cyber Fraud: Techie loses Rs 11 crore to fraudsters posing as Custom and ED officials
by Sunita · KalingaTVBengaluru: The rate of cyber crimes has been rising in India with new cases emerging in regular intervals. In a recent case of cyber fraud, a man was duped of Rs 11 crore by fraudsters posing as customs and Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials. The police has arrested three people in this case.
The man, identified as Vijay Kumar is working at the tech industry in Bengaluru, was threatened to be arrested in a money laundering case if he does not do as they say.
According to sources, the fraudsters targeted the techie after they came to know about his market investment of Rs 50 lakhs that had grown to Rs 12 crores. So, in order to cheat him of his money they posed as customs and ED officials and threatened him over alleged money laundering.
In the latest case of cyber scams, a Bengaluru man working in the tech industry was reportedly duped of Rs 11 crore when fraudsters posing as customs and ED officials threatened to arrest him in a money laundering case. Three people have been arrested in the case.
Thinking them as real police officers and to stay out of trouble, Vijay shared personal details like his Aadhaar, PAN Card and KYC information to the accused, who then cleared out funds into nine bank accounts over months. When Vijay asked about this they claimed that it was part of government procedures to clear his name in the money laundering case.
Realising the trap, the victim lodged a complaint to the Crime Police. A later investigation revealed that Rs 7.5 crore was traced to a single account in Allahabad.
The money trail led the police to Surat, where they found out that one of the accused Dhaval Shah, had used the money to purchase gold. Shah confessed to police that he had acted on instructions from a Dubai-based fraudster, earning a Rs 1.5 crore commission for arranging the purchase of gold, which was handed to an unidentified person referred to as “Neel Bhai”.
Two others – Tarun Natani and Karan- were arrested alongside Shah and further investigation is underway under relevant sections of the IT Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).