PrashantNews
The Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) on Sunday arrested a cyber criminal from Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly duping a man in Dehradun of Rs 3 crore through digital arrest.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) STF Navneet Singh Bhullar said the cyber crime branch of the STF arrested Manoj (27) from Silota Road in Bahraich who had digitally arrested the victim from Dehradun for nearly 48 hours through WhatsApp video call in May. Under the fear of arrest, the victim transferred more than Rs 3 crore from his account to the fraudster.
Bhullar said that 76 complaints have been registered in various states across the country against the bank account being used by the accused in the fraud and suspicious transactions of more than Rs 6 crore have been found in that account.
According to the complaint lodged on May 20, the victim, a resident of Rajpur area in Dehradun, received a mobile call in which he was informed that his parcel was caught by the narcotics department at the Mumbai airport. He was told that his parcel contained some objectionable material like narcotics and other drugs.
Despite the victim insisting that no such parcel was sent, the caller tried to intimidate claiming strict action would be taken since his name has appeared on the parcel.
The person, who claimed to be a senior officer of Greater Mumbai Police, told the victim that a case of drug-trafficking and money laundering has been registered against him for which he will have to come to Mumbai for investigation and will probably have to go to jail as well. The complainant said that he got scared. The fraudster told the victim that he would now make video calls to him through WhatsApp but in the meantime he should not talk to anyone else and should not leave the house without his permission.
The complainant said that the person kept in touch with him through WhatsApp video and voice calls from May 20 to May 22 and kept scaring him by telling various things. The caller forced the victim to transfer Rs 3 crore in two installments to a new account for investigation purpose on May 21 and May 22. The victim later realized that he was cheated and lodged a complaint.
The SSP said after rigorous investigations and search operation, STF managed to nab the fraudster from Bharaich. A mobile handset along with the SIM used in the fraud has also been recovered.
Cyber crimes are latest technology adopted by fraudsters. Now pick pocketing, chain snatching, and dacoities are things of past. This means new gang of criminals are well educated and technology savvy. They know how to dupe people sitting in air-conditioned office far from places of crime.
Recent announcement of creating cyber force to fight cyber crimes is a good step to welcome.