Kerala bishop cheated of ₹15 lakh by cyber fraudsters claiming to be CBI officers
According to the bishop, he also got a video call after an hour later and described what he saw on the call as an office with a CBI emblem and some officers
Kochi: The Keezhvaipur police have filed a first information report (FIR) against alleged cyber fraudsters based on the complaint of a Kerala bishop who was cheated of Rs.15 lakh.
Bishop Geevarghese Mar Coorilos, a former metropolitan of the Niranam diocese of the Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church, said he received a call on August 2 in which the caller-ID showed ‘Mumbai Cyber’.
The bishop said he picked up the call and spoke to someone who identified himself as the cyber police and told him that his account was linked to a money laundering case.
“The caller said my bank account was likely being misused by the accused in the money laundering case and that the case was being handled by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)”, Coorilos said after he registered a complaint with the Keezhvaipur police station.
According to the bishop, he also got a video call after an hour later and described what he saw on the call as an office with a CBI emblem and some officers.
During the call, he was asked a series of questions about the bank accounts he owns and the deposits in them.
The bishop said he was told by the people over the call that he was being put in ‘digital custody’ and that he would be presented online in court the next day in front of a judge.
The bishop said that the next day he attended a digital court hearing and heard the voice of a ‘judge’ who asked him about his involvement in the case.
“I denied the allegations and said that I have no connection to the money laundering case. The fake judge then said that it was a serious case and that all my accounts would be frozen. I was told to declare my accounts and transfer the money in them into a secret service account, which is monitored by the Supreme Court. If I am found innocent, the case will be closed and the money sent back to my accounts. I thought if it helps my case, I should do as I am told and transfer Rs.13 lakh,” the priest said.
He was then tricked by the alleged fraudsters to send another Rs.1.2 lakh as he had recently ‘withdrawn’ the amount from the account.
The bishop said he also received documents of the supposed ‘court verdict’ with the seal of the judge as well as receipts for the money transferred to the so-called secret service accounts.
“The documents, along with the seals even of the Supreme Court of India, seemed genuine to me. But my suspicion arose when another person messaged me on WhatsApp pretending to be a CBI officer and asked for Rs.2 lakh as a ‘gift’ for helping me out….That’s when I suspected foul play and called a lawyer friend of mine who informed him about a similar kind of scam”, Coorilos said.
The bishop, realising that he had been cheated, filed complaints with the police and the cyber cell and said he was coming out publicly as he did not want anyone else to be defrauded in this manner.
Speaking to HT, Satheesh Sekhar, sub-inspector at the Keezhvaipur police station, said, “We received the complaint from Geevarghese Mar Coorilos on Wednesday through the cybercrime portal. After taking his statement, we have registered a case under sections 66B and 66C of the IT Act and section 318 in the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita (BNS). The probe has begun.”
On May 1 this year, HT reported how a chartered accountant from Vile Parle-East in Mumbai had been cheated of Rs.34.7 lakh allegedly by fraudsters who used the same modus operandi and impersonated the CBI and Mumbai police officers to threaten the victim.