CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu police’s cybercrime wing recently handled two cases where the victims transferred a total of around Rs 3.4 crore to cyber fraudsters who posed as Mumbai police (Fedex scam) and a CBI officer (Telecom scam).
An official statement from the state police on Monday said that the first victim was contacted by a fraudster posing as Mumbai police and threatened action claiming that a parcel containing drugs had arrived in the victim’s name.
The criminal managed to extort Rs 1.18 crore from different bank accounts of the victim. A case was registered and a team arrested Rameshbhai Badabhi Bhogra and agents Paresh Narshibhai and Vivek from Surat in Gujarat who had opened the victim’s accounts.
In the second case, the victim received a call from a person claiming to be a telecom official who lied about the victim being involved in a money laundering case. The number of a ‘CBI officer’ was provided, who when contacted, demanded money from the victim, who ultimately paid up. After the TN cybercrime wing registered a case in this regard, as much as Rs 1.2 crore was retrieved from the fraudsters, the release said.
In a few other cases in the past three days, the Chennai city cybercrime wing police managed to retrieve Rs 2.59 crore by swiftly acting on complaints before the money was transferred to other fake bank accounts. Over the past eight months, a total of Rs 132 crore was extorted from unsuspecting victims in the city. The scammers employ various tactics to deceive their victims.
Police have appealed to the public to seek assistance from cybercrime wing when they get such calls and avoid giving personal or bank information over the phone. They have also recommended using two-factor authentication on sensitive accounts for an added layer of security. Such scam incidents can be reported on 1930 or www.cybercrime.gov.in.