AHMEDABAD: In a cyber fraud mirroring the recent Rs 19 crore scam in Gandhinagar, a retired forest head clerk from Gujarat’s Rajkot, has fallen prey to a “digital arrest” con and lost Rs 8.93 lakh. Posing as officials from TRAI and Maharashtra Cyber Crime, the scammers extorted money from the elderly man by threatening him with criminal charges and arrest.The victim, a former Forest Head Clerk at Bahumali Bhavan, lives near Patidar Chowk in Rajkot. On November 28, 2024, he received a call from a woman identifying herself as Diya Sharma from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). She claimed that two Jio SIM cards linked to his number were being misused and needed to be deactivated immediately.Minutes later, a second call came, this time from someone posing as Inspector Mohit Handa from the Maharashtra Cyber Crime Cell. The caller alleged that an HDFC Bank account had been opened using the victim’s Aadhaar-linked SIM, through which Rs 68 lakh had been fraudulently transacted. The scammer claimed the money belonged to a woman who had since died by suicide and that an arrest warrant had been issued against the retired clerk.As the victim hesitated, the imposter escalated the pressure. Through a video call, he showed a man in police uniform seated at what appeared to be a police station and claimed the only way to avoid arrest was to provide a security bond of Rs 2 lakh. Terrified, the retired official agreed to cooperate.
Source link
