Cybercrooks upgrade skills, con man with ‘SC’ link – Times of India

MUMBAI: Amidst growing awareness of digital detention scams, fraudsters have continued to evolve their methods. Recently, a 49-year-old man from Kandivli, following a call, received a link that led to documents related to a money laundering “charge” against him. The link resembled Supreme Court’s website. Alarmed, he transferred Rs 32 lakh to scammers, later realising that the documents were fake. The cyber police registered an FIR on Jan 1. In another digital detention case, a vice-president with a private company was scammed of Rs 1.6 crore.
This is how the scam unfolded. The Kandivli man received a call last month, with the caller claiming to be a Trai employee. The caller said a case had been registered against the man with Delhi Police for money laundering and for putting out fake ads. The call was transferred to “DCP Sharma” who instructed the man to get onto a WhatsApp call. On it, the man shared information on his assets and investments, besides personal information such as where he worked. He was told to provide information on his whereabouts every hour.
The next day, “CBI officer Simi” contacted him and sent him a web link about the “charges” he faced. He was also given a “case number”. Once he keyed it in, an arrest warrant, a bank account freeze warrant and an RBI notice popped up. They were all fake, but the man was convinced he was in legal trouble. The scammers forbade him from seeking advice from anyone. After receiving a second notice with “Supreme Court of India” written on the letterhead, the man was spooked and went to the bank as instructed by the scammers. He transferred Rs 32 lakh to them. After returning home and confiding in his family, his brother told him it appeared that he had been scammed.
In the case of the vice-president, fraudsters got him to empty out not only his bank accounts, but also the pension accounts of his elderly mother and deceased father. They sent him letters from “CBI, RBI and Supreme Court”, accusing him of drug trafficking, human trafficking and money laundering. He was asked to download Skype where instructions were given to him to transfer funds to “a special account created by RBI”. Faced with threats that his mother too would be arrested, he transferred Rs 1.6 crore. While he was making the final money transfer from the Bengaluru airport, his friend told him it looked like he had been scammed.