The police are on the lookout for a group of scammers who duped a 78-year-old man to the tune of Rs 68 lakh, claiming that he was under investigation in a money laundering case.
According to the police, the complainant is a resident of Thane. On November 22, he received a phone call from a person claiming to be from a bank. The caller told the complainant that a credit card has been issued on his name and a payment of Rs1 lakh is due. After some time, the man received a video call from a person wearing a police uniform, who claimed to be an officer from the Mumbai cyber cell.
He told the complainant that his Aadhaar card had been used for money laundering purposes and a criminal, arrested for Rs 2.56 crore fraud, was carrying the debit and credit cards of the complainant. In order to put the complainant under fear, the scammers also shared a bogus Supreme Court and Enforcement Directorate’s arrest warrant having the complainant’s name. The scammers then told the complainant that if he wanted to get off the case, he would have to repay Rs 2.56 crore.
After the complainant said that he did not have that much money, the scammers induced him to pay whatever money he had in his bank account. Out of fear, he transferred Rs68 lakh from his bank account to the beneficiary bank account given by the scammers. Later when the complainant informed his family member about the incident, he learnt that he had been cheated. He then approached the police and got an offence registered.
