Kathmandu. A 72-year-old businessman in Mumbai has been arrested by a gang of fraudsters and extorted Rs 58 crore from him.
According to the police, the gang posed as a Revenue Investigation Officer and a Special Investigation Bureau (CBI) officer and duped the elderly businessman through “digital arrests”.
According to Indian officials, this loss of Rs 58 crore could be one of the largest ever reported in a ‘digital arrest’ cyber fraud case involving an individual.
The Maharashtra Cyber Department, which is probing the case, has also detained three people.
Digital arrests are a growing form of cybercrime in which fraudsters pose as law enforcement officers or employees of government agencies. Victims are intimidated through audio or video calls. They mentally imprison the victims and force them to pay.
In the latest incident, the gang, posing as employees of the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), contacted businessmen between August 19 and October 8, threatening them claiming that the victims had been named in a money laundering investigation case.
The official said the businessman panicked after the video call put the businessman and his wife in a “digital hijacking”. Initially, under the guise of a revenue officer, they had unauthorized access to all the personal details, business details, bank accounts and other business details of the victims under the pretext of investigation. After getting all the confidential information, they extorted the money by threatening to put them in jail if they did not give the amount they had demanded.
After the fraudsters asked him to deposit the money in their designated bank accounts, the victim transferred Rs 58 crore through online payments to several bank accounts over a period of about two months.
Later, he felt cheated and contacted the cyber police.
The cyber sleuths registered a case last week under relevant provisions of the Indian Code of Justice and the Information Technology Act after investigating the incident. During the investigation, the police, while analysing the financial transactions, found that the money had been transferred to at least 18 bank accounts.
They have already contacted the authorities immediately and instructed them to stop the money transferred to several bank accounts.
Police have identified three persons involved in the fraud. Those arrested range from a 35-year-old man to a 55-year-old man.
