Rajat Sharma’s Blog | Cyber ​​robbers looted Rs 15 crore even from educated people

Cyber ​​​​thugs cheated about fifteen crore rupees from an elderly NRI couple. Threatened an elderly couple in the name of sending obscene messages from their phone and having an FIR for money laundering, threatened them with an arrest warrant, then made them talk to fake police officers, created a court drama and got around Rs 15 crores transferred by exchanging two crores each.

The surprising thing is that the couple with whom this fraud took place, the husband and wife went to the bank to transfer the money, the bank employees asked them the reason for transferring such a huge amount and asked them to do the transaction next week, but the fraudsters had frightened these elderly people so much that they told the same story to the bank officials about transferring the money, which the fraudsters had taught them.

Even after transferring Rs 15 crore, these elders did not inform the police, they went to the police station only when the thugs told them to go and inform the police. The elderly reached the police station thinking that now all the cases have been cleared, if they reach the police station they will get the money back, but when they reached the police, they came to know that they have been cheated.

Doctor Om Taneja and his wife Indira Taneja live in Greater Kailash, a posh area of ​​Delhi. Both are NRIs, Om is an engineer by profession, retired from the United Nations and his wife Indira Taneja is a pediatrician. Their children live in America. Om and Indira Taneja returned to India in 2015 for social service after living in America for 45 years, now do social service. Both are educated but fell into the trap of swindlers.

Cyber ​​criminals tried the same method which is used in every case of fraud. Indira Taneja got a call, the caller told that he was from TRAI, her phone number was being blocked because objectionable content was being sent from this number, a case of money laundering was registered against her. After this the call was transferred. There was a person in police uniform on the video call. He told Indira Taneja that she would have to come to Mumbai. Indira said that her husband had undergone an operation and she could not come to Mumbai. As soon as the thugs realized that Indira Taneja was scared, they started playing the game. Sent fake arrest warrant to scare them. His account details were asked and then he was digitally arrested.

On the first day, the gang members kept getting the documentation done from Dr. Indira Taneja for show, so that everything seemed correct, hence a document of the Notary Secret Supervision Account was sent, in which an account number of Yes Bank was given. It was written in the document that the assets of Indira Taneja would be investigated through this account of Yes Bank. After this, Indira Taneja was asked to deposit all her money in this account. The swindlers knew that when Indira Taneja would go to transfer crores of rupees, the bank people would ask the reason. Therefore, the thugs also told them what to say to the bank people. Indira Taneja told the bank employees the same story which the swindlers had taught her, the bank people asked to transfer the money next week but Indira Taneja insisted and transferred an amount of about Rs 15 crore in 8 times.

Cyber ​​thugs kept Om and Indira Taneja under digital arrest for 17 days and did not allow them to talk to anyone. The criminals threatened Dr. Indira Taneja that if she told anyone about this, the lives of her children could be in danger and the people who had laundered money from her phone number could take the lives of her family. When Dr. Taneja asked to talk to his lawyer, the thugs said that it was a matter of national security. Even when Om and Indira used to talk to their children on the phone, the criminals used to keep an eye on them by making video calls on other phones.

Indira Taneja got about Rs 15 crore transferred to the accounts of Yes Bank and Axis Bank. The cyber thugs assured Indira Taneja that the money transferred by her would be returned to her account. The thugs told Indira Taneja that she had been given a clean chit. Then another Rs 50 lakh was taken to give a clean chit to her husband. All this continued till the morning of 10 January. But even after this Indira and Om Taneja did not understand that they had been cheated. He kept waiting for his money to come back.

When she called the thugs and asked whether the investigation was complete or not, the thugs told Indira Taneja to go to the nearest police station and take back the money. Indira Taneja reached the police station to take back the money and then came to know that she had been defrauded. The case has now been handed over to the IFSO department of Delhi Police. It has been revealed that the money seized from the couple was deposited in different bank accounts in seven states. These bank accounts have been opened in the name of a foundation or a private company.

The maximum amount of money was deposited in bank accounts in Vadodara, Gujarat, while the remaining money was deposited in bank accounts in Assam, Bengal, Mumbai, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Police suspect that this money was deposited in small amounts in more than 500 mule (fake) bank accounts and digital wallets. Till now the police has seized Rs 1.4 crore. But has been able to stop it.

The scale of cyber fraud is quite large. Last year, cyber fraud worth about Rs 20 thousand crores took place across the country. About 22 lakh complaints were received, 45 percent of the total frauds were sourced from three Southeast Asian countries – Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.

The cyber fraud that happened in Greater Kailash, Delhi teaches a lot. The victims of fraud are husband and wife engineers and doctors. Both of them have seen the world, yet they could not recognize that the police was fake, the court was fake, the documents were fake, the case was false, there is no such thing as digital arrest. Still, cyber criminals intimidated them and got them to transfer Rs 15 crore. It will be difficult to get this money back, because by the time the police came to know, the cyber thugs had transferred this money to their foreign bank accounts.

I just want to tell you that if someone scares you, comes on video posing as police or judge, asks you to transfer money from the bank, then never believe it. Police do not talk about any arrest warrant on phone. There is no such thing as digital arrest. If someone tries to scare you by citing any case, then call 1930, this is the helpline number of the Home Ministry. Even if you are cheated by someone and you approach the police within 24 hours, there is still a possibility of getting your money back. Understand yourself, explain to others also. Be careful yourself, caution others too. (Rajat Sharma)

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