Retired teacher loses ₹64 lakh to cyber frauds

MUMBAI: Retired teacher Dinanath Mishra lost ₹64 lakh to cyber criminals who faked his ‘digital arrest’ in a money-laundering scheme via video calls.

MUMBAI: Yet another retired person fell into the ‘digital arrest’ trap of cyber criminals and ended up losing ₹64 lakh, including his hard-earned retirement funds. The Achole police in Nalasopara East on Saturday registered a case against cyber frauds who cheated a retired teacher, Dinanath Mishra ,58, of Samyukta Nagar, by placing him under ‘digital arrest’ and producing him in a ‘digital’ court’ - a modus operandi that cyber criminals use to digitally rob people of their savings and funds.

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In this case too, the victim was falsely accused of being involved in a money-laundering case and was informed by gang members masquerading as police and ED officers that he was under ‘digital arrest’. The victim was even produced before a ‘digital court’ set, complete with a ‘judge’. All this took place on video calls.

The complainant received the first call from the gang on March 7, when a woman, who said she was from TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) notification cell, told him that he has been implicated in an extortion and money laundering case registered at the Tilak Nagar Police Station in Delhi.

The next phase of the gang’s plan involved telling the victim to pay a huge sum of money, or face jail term. Believing them, the complainant emptied out his savings, borrowed money from relatives, and even sold his wife’s jewellery to gather the demanded sum, as he lives on his pension now.

He paid ₹44 lakh to the gang in the first instalment and ₹20 lakh in the second. In this way, between March 7 and March 23, he was cheated out of ₹64 lakh, but he kept quiet as the crooks had warned him not to tell anyone about it.

Last week, however, when a relative asked him about the money he had borrowed from him, Mishra revealed the entire story to him. After the relative told him that he was duped by cyber criminals, Mishra approached the Achole police.

“Based on the statement of Mishra, we have registered a case against unknown persons under sections 66 (a) and 66 (d) of the IT Act,” said an officer of Achole Police Station.