Mumbai: A WhatsApp conversation with a man claiming to be a law enforcement officer eventually cost a 79-year-old retired Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) employee Rs 13.3 lakh in Mumbai’s latest digital arrest fraud.
The Jogeshwari West resident came under the radar of cybercriminals on September 26, when an individual identifying himself as Sandeep Roy contacted him. The caller allegedly dragged the elderly man into a fabricated money laundering investigation, claiming his Aadhaar credentials had surfaced in a case registered in Nashik.
The impersonators reportedly went to considerable lengths to establish their credibility. They circulated documents bearing the logos of the Reserve Bank of India and the Enforcement Directorate, including a purported arrest warrant, to convince the victim that he was facing legal action.
The operation then shifted towards his finances. The victim was allegedly told that his bank deposits, fixed deposits and mutual fund holdings had to undergo scrutiny. He was persuaded to move funds into accounts specified by the callers, supposedly to facilitate the verification process.
Repeated threats of arrest and instructions to keep the matter confidential prevented him from seeking immediate assistance. The elderly man eventually transferred his savings in several transactions.
It was his wife’s intervention that brought the alleged fraud to light. After noticing the suspicious movement of money, she questioned the transactions and alerted him to the possibility of a cyber scam.
The victim subsequently reported the incident on the national cybercrime portal. An FIR was registered at Mumbai’s North Cyber Police Station on November 2, and investigators are probing the case.
