Pune Woman lost ₹1.6 Cr to Cybercriminals Posing as a “National Security Threat”
Pune Woman lost ₹1.6 Cr to Cybercriminals Posing as a “National Security Threat”
A woman from Pune who was 67 years old and had her life savings reduced to ₹1.6 crore as a result of falling victim to a cyber fraud. The woman, who lived in Kothrud, received a phone call in which she was informed that her phone number had been used to send sexually explicit texts and that she had been arrested by the Mumbai police Department.
In addition to being threatened with an arrest warrant under the guise of a “national security threat” and a “Supreme Court case,” she was also informed that any disclosure would result in the imprisonment of her children and the seizure of their assets. At the beginning of this week, the victim went to the Cyber Crime police station in Pune and reported the event.
It was during the first week of May that she received a phone call from a man who introduced himself as a sub-inspector from the Tilak Nagar police station in Mumbai. He used the identity of an Indian Police Service officer who was currently stationed in Pune. He said that sexually explicit texts were sent from her phone number and requested that she provide her personal, financial, and Aadhar credentials so that all of the confusion could be resolved.
After that, he deceived her by telling her that a First Information Report (FIR) had been filed with the Supreme Court, which included allegations of money laundering, and that a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official would get in touch with her to offer aid.
The following day, she was the recipient of a video call from a man who was pretending to be a “CBI officer” and using the name of another IPS officer who was now serving. This bogus officer asserted that all of her money needed to be transferred to “beneficiary accounts held by the Reserve Bank of India” in order to check the legality of the funds that were in her account and to guarantee that they were not utilized for the purpose of money laundering.
He informed her that the case did not fall under the category of “national secrets” and that it entailed significant criminal conduct. The woman transferred one crore and 29 lakh rupees from two other accounts out of fear of the legal repercussions that could result from her actions.
The complainant was informed that she was being watched while she was being transferred, and she was kept on messenger calls. It was a warning from the “CBI officer” that she should not discuss the subject with anybody else, as doing so would result in her children being detained and their assets being taken by the government. Following that, she was given the instruction to send an additional fifty lakh rupees to the “Supreme Court,” which resulted in her transferring more than thirty lakh rupees.
After a series of increasingly demanding demands, the woman finally confided in her daughter, who then came to the realization that she had been tricked by cybercriminals. Following that, she filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime portal, and the matter was then forwarded to the Cyber Crime police station in Pune City.
One of the officers from the Cyber Crime police station made the observation that the method of operation of the crime was comparable to the ‘drugs in parcel’ scam, but the threats that were involved were different. As part of a related incident that took place at the Wakad police station in PimpriChinchwad, a software engineer in his forties was defrauded of forty lakh rupees after he was informed that his phone number had been used to harass a woman. He was also threatened with legal action under the “National Secret Rule.”
They often involve fraudsters impersonating personnel of the Internal Revenue Service (IPS) in order to pressure victims into sending money for a variety of invented reasons, such as customs taxes or legal penalties, and stating that their bank accounts are at risk from hackers. Victims are frequently threatened with surveillance by authorities, which serves to intimidate them.
About The Author:
Yogesh Naager is a content marketer who specializes in the cybersecurity and B2B space. Besides writing for the News4Hackers blog, he’s also written for brands including CollegeDunia, Utsav Fashion, and NASSCOM. Naager entered the field of content in an unusual way. He began his career as an insurance sales executive, where he developed an interest in simplifying difficult concepts. He also combines this interest with a love of narrative, which makes him a good writer in the cybersecurity field. In the bottom line, he frequently writes for Craw Security.
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