In another case of cybercrime, a Pune-based senior doctor was coerced and manipulated by cyber criminals into transferring Rs 1 crore under the pretext of a fake investigation in a drug-in-pair scam.

The victim, a doctor who is in his 50s, was allegedly forced and duped by fraudsters for a week. They accused the doctor of identity theft, drug trafficking, and money laundering to extract a large sum of money from him. As per the cyber police, the victim lost his money after he was allegedly pressurized into isolating himself in a hotel, staying on continuous audio calls for 'surveillance', and liquidating investments to transfer money to 'government safe accounts' for six days in the first week of March.

The agony began with a phone call from someone alleging to be a courier executive, saying that a parcel sent by the doctor to Taiwan contained illegal items. The items comprised five passports and 200 grams of MDMA drugs.

The doctor was allegedly forced into believing his identity was being misused for drug trafficking and money laundering, despite denying involvement. Later, the fraudsters asked him to lodge an FIR at the Mumbai Crime Branch. They gave him the option to either go to the police station in person or contact an officer through a Skype video call to file a case. Then the doctor received multiple Skype calls from a profile with the logo of the Mumbai Crime Branch and persons wearing police uniforms and using the names of current IAS and IPS officers, which include a police commissioner in Maharashtra and a previous governor of the RBI.

The situation worsened when the doctor was asked to provide photos of his family for reported security reasons. He was asked to show his Aadhar card and told that an FIR had been filed in his name. He was also shown a paper with the false letterhead of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

After this, the fraudsters then demanded the doctor’s financial information and extracted the details of bank accounts, savings, investments, etc. To coerce the doctor even more, the fraudsters told him that he would have to quarantine himself in a hotel.

Agreeing with the fraudsters, the doctor booked a room in a hotel. Fraudsters told him that he was under surveillance and was made to keep an audio call on constantly. Fraudsters told the doctor that he would have to transfer over Rs. 15 lakh from the doctor's account to a ‘government account’ that was a fraudulent account of those criminals until verification of his account was done.

The doctor was subsequently duped into liquidating his investments and savings and was made to transfer over Rs. 85 lakh again to those fraudulent accounts. Following these transfers, he was sent letters with fake letterheads from the RBI stating that the funds had been received. Although the doctor soon recognized that he had fallen prey to an elaborate cyber scam when he was asked to send his family members pictures for security purposes’," the fraudsters asked for extra money to keep his family members from being prosecuted.

(Input from various sources)

(Rehash/Komal Bhoi/MSM)