Pune: Businessman Duped Of Rs One Crore By Mobile Phone Caller Who Served ‘CBI Notice’

Mubarak Ansari

Aundh, 6th April 2024: A 57-year-old businessman from Aundh, Pune, was served with a fabricated CBI notice and deceived into sharing bank statements by cyber fraudsters who duped him of Rs one crore.

The victim has a business in auto parts manufacturing at Alandi. The fraud happened on 3rd March. At 4 pm, the victim received a call from an unknown caller on his mobile number. The caller identified himself as an official of the Ministry of Telecommunications and verified the identity of the victim.

According to police, the fraudster informed the victim that some people were misusing his Aadhar Card details and sending fraudulent messages to various people and there is a criminal case registered against the victim at Andheri East Police Station. With this story, the fraudster informed that the communication would now be transferred to Andheri Police Station.

Later the victim received a WhatsApp video call from another number and sent a fabricated notice with the Aadhar card and name details of the victim on CBI letterhead. The victim was then informed that his case was coming under the jurisdiction of the CBI. The victim was then threatened that he should not speak to anybody about the communication as the matter is coming under National Security Act.

The fraudster then sent images of some people on WhatsApp and informed them that all such people had been arrested, and interrogated if the victim knew them. The fraudster in a professional tone informed the victim that the CBI has got evidence against the victim. Then the fraudster inquired if there was any black money in the victim’s account. It was informed that RBI has instructed to check the funds of the victim. Therefore, the fraudster instructed the victim to share all his bank details and bank statements.

The gullible victim shared the bank details and the last three months’ bank statements. Thereafter the fraudster instructed the victim that all the funds in his all-bank accounts must be transferred to the bank accounts instructed by the fraud and only 5000/- rupees balance must be kept in the victim’s bank account as per RBI rules.

The fraudster kept threatening the victim in the name of the National Security Act and money laundering and made the victim transfer the funds. After the money transfer, suddenly one amount of 20 Lakhs was returned to the victim’s account. The fraudster then made a WhatsApp call and instructed the victim to transfer the said amount to another bank account. At this moment the victim became suspicious. In total, the victim has been cheated of over 1 Crore 3 Lakh rupees in a single day.

The victim contacted Adv Satya Muley, who then guided him to file an FIR at the cyber police station of Pune Police. Representing the victim Adv. Muley stated that, these days online and mobile frauds have become rampant and common citizens must remain vigilant about such unknown callers, messages, and emails. The current example is of a very serious crime and the victim has lost almost his entire savings at a senior age.

Adv. Muley was assisted by Adv Amruta Kulkarni and Adv Neha Bhurat in the matter.