Hyderabad: The Cyberabad police arrested three men for their involvement in a ‘digital arrest’ scam, where an 82-year-old retired engineer was duped of Rs 1.38 crore.
The police, on February 21, arrested the men from their native in Namakkal of Tamil Nadu. The arrested have been identified as Gokul Maruthachalamoorthi, 24, Jafar Sereef, 23, and Sharukhan, 30.
According to the police, the arrested Gokul is the holder of a mule account, through which the fraudsters siphoned money from the victim. While Jafar Sereef and Sharukhan supplied bank accounts to the scamsters.
The police said that the victim got a call from the scammers, who posed as officials from the State Bank of India (SBI), and falsely informed him that a case had been booked against him on anti-money laundering charges. This call was forwarded to another fraudster, who posed as a Mumbai Cyber crimes officer, who intimidated and put the victim in fear of arrest and humiliation.
Manipulating the victim, the fraudsters coerced him into sharing his AADHAAR details and tricked him into transferring Rs 1,38,60,000 across multiple bank accounts operated by fraudsters.
Upon receiving the complaint, the Cyberabad Cyber Crimes police launched an investigation, which revealed the bank details of Gokul Maruthachalamoorthi’s Federal Bank account, in which Rs 9,60,000 from the victim was credited, which was later withdrawn by the main scammer, identified as Rahul.
Interrogation revealed that Gokul had shared his account details, passbooks, ATM cards, and signed chequebooks with Jafar Sereef and Sharukhan on a commission basis.
Jafar Sereef and Sharukhan had provided these details to Rahul, who deceived victims and siphoned funds from their accounts.
Cyberabad police bust ‘digital arrest’ rackets in Tamil Nadu, Kerala
Cyberabad police urge citizens to be vigilant
The Cyberabad cyber crimes police urged the citizens to remain vigilant against cyber criminals posing as officials, aiming to defraud money from individuals.
“Be sceptical of urgent demands for money or personal information such as Aadhaar numbers, bank account numbers, or OTPs,” the police reminded.
“Always verify the source of the communication and confirm the information with the concerned authorities or institutions,” Cyberabad cyber crimes police added.
Citizens can report any instances of cyber crimes, including ‘digital arrest’ scams at the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal or by dialling the toll-free number 1930.
