Representative image of cyber fraud.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Mumbai: A retired director of a multinational company (MNC) residing in Mumbai lost nearly Rs 25 crore to cyber fraudsters, who posed as police and CBI officers and intimidated her saying she was being probed in a money laundering case, officials said on Thursday.
Police say this is one of the biggest cyber fraud cases targeting an individual in the city in recent times.
According to them, the victim sold her and her mother’s shares and mutual fund investments and even took out a gold loan to pay money to the scammers.
The incident occurred during a two-month period starting February 6 this year, a police official said.
"The complainant, who stays in a western suburb, received a WhatsApp call with the caller posing as an official of the telecom department, who told her that her three mobile numbers will be deactivated. When the victim, who is a senior citizen, sought to know the reason, the caller told her that he was connecting the call to a police officer," he said.
After that, another man posing as a police officer started speaking and said they have received a money laundering complaint against her and her mobile numbers and Aadhaar card was found linked to the case, he said.
"The caller then transferred the call to another person, who posed as a CBI officer and threatened her with the money laundering case. The caller told her that if she wanted to get out of the case, she should deposit money into the bank accounts provided by him and assured that she will get her money back," the police official said.
The fraudsters also opened a current account in the victim's name and asked her to deposit money there. They told her that her money will be sent to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The caller also told her to collect the receipt of the payment from the local police station, he said.
The woman transferred around Rs 25 crore to the account, but failed to get it back, following which she approached the Mumbai police and filed a complaint against unidentified fraudsters, the police official said.
The cyber police station of the Mumbai crime branch initiated a probe into the case and froze 31 bank accounts so far, he said.