Chandigarh: Two senior citizens fall prey to digital arrest scam, lose ₹35 lakh

A 77-year-old man lost ₹18.4 lakh from his fixed deposits and his wife’s bank accounts after falling prey to a scammer posing as a Mumbai police official

Cyber criminals continue to target gullible senior citizens. Two more incidents of digital arrest scam were reported in the tricity, where scammers duped two senior citizens of ₹35.9 lakh after threatening them with false implication in serious fraud.

Among the two victims, Mangal Dass Gautam retired from the Punjab education department and resides with his wife in Sector 14, Panchkula. Their two sons and a daughter are settled abroad. (Representational)

In Panchkula, a 77-year-old man lost ₹18.4 lakh from his fixed deposits and his wife’s bank accounts after falling prey to a scammer posing as a Mumbai police official.

The victim, Mangal Dass Gautam, retired from the Punjab education department and resides with his wife in Sector 14, Panchkula. Their two sons and a daughter are settled abroad.

Gautam reported that he received a phone call on April 1 from an individual identifying himself as Deepak Sharma. The caller claimed that Gautam was among 17 people under the scanner for collusion with one Naresh Goyal, who had sent ₹680 crore to India. Sharma stated that Goyal had been arrested and that Gautam needed to travel to the Colaba police station in Mumbai to provide a statement.

Gautam denied any knowledge of Naresh Goyal, but the fraudster proceeded to request his bank details. Gautam disclosed that he had two FDs. The following day, the same accused connected him with another person, Vishal Goyal, who advised him to transfer the funds from his FDs for verification. Goyal assured him that if he was found innocent, the money would be refunded within 24 hours.

Subsequently, Gautam transferred a total of ₹18.4 lakh from his FDs and his wife’s accounts, only to realise that he had fallen victim to cyber fraud. On his complaint, police have registered an FIR under Sections 61 (criminal conspiracy), 318 (4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), and 316 (2) (criminal breach of trust) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Woman duped of ₹17.5 lakh by fraudsters posing as TRAI officials

In a similar case in Chandigarh, a 64-year-old woman from Sector 50-B was duped of ₹17.5 lakh by fraudsters posing as officials of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Delhi crime branch.

The victim, Harbeer Kaur, stated in her complaint to the Cyber crime police station, Sector 17, that she received a call from a person identifying himself as Rahul Sharma from TRAI, bearing ID PB049. The caller, using mobile number 9580-828-483, informed her that a secondary contact number had allegedly been issued under her name and was being used for “illegal advertising and harassing texts”.

Further, the fraudster claimed that a case had been registered against her with the crime branch. Kaur said the fraudster named a cyber officer Rakesh Kumar and a senior officer named Shagufta, mentioning file number 320 allegedly opened against her. To resolve the issue, the fraudsters asked her to transfer money to prove her innocence.

Under the pressure of these threats, Kaur broke her FD and made two large transfers— ₹7.5 lakh on September 20 and ₹10 lakh on September 21. She was contacted again by the fraudsters in September but chose not to respond. A complaint was subsequently lodged on September 23.

Police have initiated an investigation into the matter and are tracing the bank accounts and mobile numbers used by the accused. A case under Sections 319(2) (cheating by personation), 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 336(3) (forgery for purpose of cheating), 338 (forgery of valuable security), 340(2) (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of BNS was registered at the Cyber police station on Thursday.

Scammers posing as bank staff dupe ex-servicemen of ₹1.49 lakh

A 68-year-old ex-serviceman was also targeted by cyber criminals, who duped him of ₹1.49 lakh by posing as bank staff.

The victim, Satinder Nath Setia, a resident of Sector 20, Panchkula, told police that he visited the Axis Bank branch in Sector 20 on March 31 for some banking work.

Before his visit, he looked up the phone number of SBI’s branch in Sector 10 on Google. He found a mobile number and called it, enquiring about the procedure to link his SBI PPF account to his Axis Bank account.

The person on the other end of the line asked him to wait and said he will contact him via WhatsApp to explain the process. Shortly after, Setia received a WhatsApp call from someone claiming to be from the SBI PPF branch. This individual sent him a link, purportedly to add a beneficiary in his Axis Bank account.

Upon clicking the link, Setia’s phone was compromised, and he began receiving multiple notifications of unauthorised debit transactions. When he informed the Axis Bank officials about these messages, they immediately instructed him to disconnect the call and confirmed that he had been defrauded.

Setia promptly filed a complaint with the cyber helpline, reporting that an individual impersonating a bank official had defrauded him of ₹1,49,985, which was debited from his Axis Bank debit card.

The cybercrime police have registered a case under Sections 316 (2) and 318 (4) of the BNS.