Cyber fraudsters link Noida woman to ‘Pahalgam attack’, con her of ₹43.7 lakh

The 76-year-old woman was told that a mobile number, registered in her name in Mumbai, was being used for illegal activities like gambling and blackmailing.

A woman in Noida’s Sector 41 lost ₹43.70 lakh to cyber criminals after being put into “digital arrest” for 26 days, police said on Tuesday.

She said in her statement that the fraudsters told her that bank accounts in her name in Mumbai were being used to fund terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack. (Representative Image)

The woman, who retired from a corporate office, became a victim after receiving a call on her landline phone on July 18, with the caller introducing herself as a telecom firm’s executive, officers said.

Cybercriminals allegedly linked the woman to the “Pahalgam terror attack” over a WhatsApp video call and kept her under digital arrest. She was told that a mobile phone number, registered in her name in Mumbai, Byculla, was being used for illegal activities such as gambling and blackmailing, police said.

“She told me that she was connecting me to the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, who will explain and from whom I shall need to obtain a Clearance Certificate,” reads her first information report lodged at cybercrime branch on August 31.

Later, a person impersonating a Mumbai Crime Branch officer made a WhatsApp video call to her. “There is an arrest warrant in my name because there are four bank accounts in Mumbai in my name, which are being used in Hawala, drug trafficking, online gambling, including funding to terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack from these accounts,” the victim alleged in the FIR.

She was asked to share financial details to avoid arrest, said police. “On the pretext of a security deposit and promising to return the money after investigation, the cybercriminals forced her to transfer all of her savings. In eight transactions through RTGS, the woman was duped of ₹43.70 lakh,” said cybercrime branch SHO Ranjeet Singh, adding that when she ran out of money, she approached her neighbour, an advocate by profession.

“When she demanded a loan from the advocate, he made her realise it was a fraud,” added SHO Singh.

Police said the suspects were pressurising her to send ₹15 lakh more. A case under sections for cheating, cheating by personation, and extortion of the BNS and the IT Act has been registered, and further investigation is underway.