“Digital Arrest”: Woman Duped of Over Rs. 11 Lakh in Noida’s First Cyber Crime Case!

Officials said on Saturday that an investigation has been initiated by the Uttar Pradesh Police following a cyber fraud incident in which a Noida resident was deceived of over ₹11 lakh and subjected to a day-long “digital arrest”.

This is the first case in the new trend of ‘digital arrest fraud’ which has been reported by the cyber crime police station in Noida. The crooks posed as police officials who mentioned the names of a CBI IPS officer and an airline founder, linking the 50-year-old victim to a fictitious money laundering case.

A similar incident was recently reported in Haryana’s Faridabad, where cyber crooks posing as police had a woman “digitally arrested” for over a week after convincing her that her IDs were being used for illegal activities. The thugs asked him to stay online via Skype and not share this information with anyone, even though they were following him all the time.

In her complaint, the Noida-based woman has alleged that she was contacted through an interactive voice response (IVR) call on November 13 and told that the mobile SIM card was purchased using her Aadhaar card in Mumbai and was used for illegal advertising and harassment. about women.

“Then my call was transferred to a person (who identified himself as a Mumbai police officer) who conducted the first questioning during the call and then on Skype VC. Then he informed me that I have another charge of money laundering related to (the founder. airline) against me an FIR has been registered and an arrest warrant has been issued by the Supreme Court, for which he sent documents on Skype,” the woman has said.

“After interrogation, he said I am innocent and not guilty, so he is transferring the interrogation (to an IPS officer posted at CBI in Mumbai) for further investigation of this case. Then he gave the Skype ID and asked me to ask the CBI officer to conduct the primary inquiry into the VC to withdraw my arrest warrant,” he has said in his complaint.

The said CBI officer told him that during the investigation of the airline founder, the police found 246 debit cards in his house and one of them had the name of the victim, which was used to open a bank account using Aadhaar card.

“Then he said that my account was used to transfer funds of ₹ 2 crore for which I have been paid ₹ 20 lakh. However, he said that I do not seem to be involved in this case, so I have to complete the investigation. transfer funds from all my accounts to my ICICI account and its after transferring the funds from ICICI account to PFC account as per Supreme Court orders…,” he said.

The woman has claimed that she was told not to disclose this information because it was “national security and will make me responsible for further action”.

“Furthermore, to prove his guilt in the crime, he asked me to maintain sufficient balance in my account, for which he also advised me to apply for a personal instant loan of ₹20,000 from ICICI and gave details on how to apply for it. , which I refused, but he forced me to arrange ₹300,000 more during the same period and after much pressure I had applied for the same which will also be transferred to the PFC account,” he said.

“They also took a picture of my signature on Skype on the pretext of validating my Aadhaar card for investigation,” he claims.

The woman reported the matter to cyber crime officials of the Uttar Pradesh Police and allegedly committed a fraud of ₹ 11.11 lakh with him, besides being “digitally” arrested from morning to night.

Inspector Reeta Yadav, who is in charge of the cyber crime police station in Sector 36, Noida, said that an FIR has been lodged under the relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

“Investigation in the case is on,” he told PTI.

The police urged people to be cautious of new cyber crimes and to contact the police at the earliest either on central number 1930 or emergency number 112 or report such activities to the cyber desk of local police stations.

“People should also know that the police will never interrogate anyone digitally. If someone threatens you in this way, ask them to send you a proper report, inquire about their details and tell them that you are coming to the police station to meet them,” Yadav said.