KOCHI : Three more persons, including a retired government employee, in Kochi fell victim to online fraudsters, who posed as police and CBI officials and robbed them of their hard-earned money, a total of around Rs 54 lakh, in just a week.
As per the probe, the fraudsters contacted the victims and threatened to arrest them claiming that their involvement in some drug and trafficking cases had come to light. The retired government employee lost Rs 29.91 lakh, while the others, a Kannur native and a Ravipuram native, lost Rs 19.9 lakh and Rs 4.04 lakh, respectively.
As per the Ernakulam Central police, the retired employee had received a call from an unknown number on February 22. The caller introduced himself as a police officer.
“The victim was told that he was being investigated in connection with a money-laundering case linked to Jet Airways, whose founder Naresh Goyal was arrested last year. The caller claimed he was investigating transactions from an account in a nationalised bank in Mumbai, and that the probe had revealed the account was opened using the victim’s Aadhaar card,” said an officer.
“The caller alleged a portion of the swindled money had been deposited in the victim’s account. The victim was later contacted via Skype by another person claiming to be from the CBI. He was told the Supreme Court had ordered his arrest and they would execute the order soon,” said the officer.
The officer said the victim told the caller that he was unaware of such an account and transactions. “Saying his bank accounts needed to be verified, the caller asked the victim to transfer money to two accounts whose details he provided. The victim complied and transferred Rs 29.91 lakh. The communication between them continued for a few days before coming to an abrupt stop. That was when the victim realised he had been duped,” said the officer. The Central police said they have launched a probe and initiated steps to freeze the fraudsters’ accounts and retrieve the money. “Since there has been a few days’ delay, the fraudsters may have moved the money from the accounts,” said an officer, adding that online frauds were on the rise and the police were receiving numerous complaints.
In the second incident, the Infopark police registered a case after a Kannur native staying in Kakkanad was contacted by a man claiming to be from the Delhi Police.
The caller told the victim that their ‘investigation’ revealed a bank account in his name had received funds made from drug and human trafficking. The victim was told that he had to legalise his account by transferring funds to the “supervision account” of the Reserve Bank of India. The victim transferred Rs 19.9 lakh to the account number provided.
Meanwhile, the Ravipuram native was contacted by a man claiming to be from a courier company. He was told that a courier sent from his address to a person in Shanghai had been intercepted by enforcement agencies for containing currencies, MDMA and ATM cards.
The next day, another person claiming to be from CBI contacted the victim and said the “case” against him had been transferred from the Mumbai Crime Branch to the CBI.
“When the victim said he was unaware of any courier, he was told to prove his innocence. He was asked to verify his account by sending money to an account, which the caller said was of a court. The victim transferred `4.04 lakh on February 19. After that neither the money was returned nor the person who called him could be reached,” said an officer.