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Hyderabad: A 61-year-old retired govt employee from Musheerabad allegedly lost Rs 74.5 lakh to cybercriminals who impersonated Mumbai police in a digital arrest scam . On Sept 16, a caller claiming to be from Colaba police station in Mumbai called the victim, who had worked with a public sector insurance company, and told her that her Aadhaar had been used to obtain a SIM card, which was allegedly used to harass women. Police registered a case under Sections 66C and 66D of the IT Act and Sections 308(2) (extortion), 318(4) (cheating), 319(2) (cheating by personation), 336(3) (forgery for cheating) and 340(2) (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the BNS.
He claimed that an FIR had been registered against her. The fraudsters also asked the victim to mortgage her gold, but she refused. Subsequently, the accused stopped contacting her.
Unable to contact the fraudsters, the victim approached police and lodged a complaint on Thursday.
On their instructions, we transferred Rs 74.5 lakh on Sept 22 to a bank account provided by fraudsters.
“I and my husband were told that our savings needed to be verified in a protected RBI-linked account. She was then contacted by a man identifying himself as inspector Sanjay, who showed her forged bank statements in her name, along with fake ED and court summons accusing her of money laundering and terror funding. Subsequently, we received a fake acknowledgement in the name of ED,” the victim alleged.