A 68-year-old man from Payyoli has lost his savings worth ₹1.51 crore in a virtual arrest scam operated by unidentified fraudsters as enforcement officers. The incident came to light on November 18 when the complainant, a gulf-returnee, approached the Cyber police for recovering the lost money which was transferred to an anonymous account in two instalments.
Police sources said the man was threatened by the ‘uniformed fraudsters’ during a Whatsapp call with a claim that he had facilitated to open personal bank accounts for the leaders of a banned political outfit for illegal transactions and that he had been under scanner for anti-national activities for years.
Man under ‘virtual arrest’ loses ₹1.5 cr. to conmen in online fraud
He was also grilled by one of the uniformed men pretending to be a senior enforcement officer and asked him to transfer the complete savings to another account which was projected as an account directly being ‘monitored’ by the Reserve Bank of India.
In the preliminary investigation, it was found that the man transferred the money in two instalments last month believing the messages of the unidentified scammers that the money would be returned on completion of the final verification process. The man was reportedly accepting the instructions of the gang as such after they made calls by convincing him with the accurate details of his bank accounts, Aadhaar card number and other personal information.
