Vadodara: A 74-year-old from Vadodara was duped of Rs 1.21 crores in a digital arrest fraud. The cybercriminals threatened and extorted money Deepak Sudamea retired professional living in the Tandalja region. He filed a complaint against the gang at the cybercrime police station.
The complainant told police he received the first call on September 4. The call came from a man claiming to be an employee of the State Bank of India (SBI), informing Sudame that he had an outstanding dues of Rs one lakh on his credit card. When Sudame said he did not have a credit card, the caller insisted that Sudame must have been a victim of cyber fraud and connected him to a fake cyber cell for further assistance.
His call was related to a fraudster who identified himself as Sub-Inspector Ravi Kumar. Kumar told him that his name had surfaced in a money laundering investigation in which one Suresh Anurag is an accused and a member of an international gang involved in a Rs 226 crore money laundering case. Sudame said he was innocent but the cybercriminal told him that he had done a transaction worth crores with Anurag.
Sudame continued to insist he was innocent, but the caller told him he would receive a legal notice for his arrest within two hours. The fraudster also sent a non-disclosure form to Sudame on WhatsApp and asked him to sign it and ensure that he would not divulge the details of the case to anyone. Sudame was threatened that if he revealed the details of the case to anyone, he would be arrested and given a prison sentence of three to seven years.
The fraudster further asked the victim to cancel all his fixed deposits and transfer the money to a savings account along with repaying his mutual fund investments. The suspect took his Aadhaar card details and then asked him to visit the bank but not to disconnect the phone call.
Sudame was asked to transfer money to various bank accounts and the cyber fraudsters even gave him a fake court receipt of the money received. The caller continued to praise Sudame for his cooperation and told him that his arrest had been put on hold. The caller then demanded another Rs 25.60 lakh, following which Sudame became suspicious and checked the documents sent by the cyber fraudsters. He realized that the documents were fake and approached the cybercrime sleuths.