Woman cheated of Rs. 44 lakh

Hyderabad: A 36-year-old female private employee from Hyderabad received an automated message from TRAI stating that all numbers under her name would be blocked in two hours. If she wanted more information, she was instructed to dial a provided number. An FIR had been lodged in the victim’s name at Andheri police station for illegal advertisement and harassment messages.

The fraudster gave the victim full details of the FIR and offered to forward her call to Andheri police station to obtain a clarification letter so that TRAI would not block her number. When the victim connected with the Cybercrime department at Andheri police station, the investigation officer (the fraudster) asked for her Aadhar number, claiming he needed to do a background check before providing clarification. In the background, a voice repeated the victim’s Aadhar number and began screaming for her arrest, claiming she was wanted in a Naresh Goyal money laundering case.

The fraudster told the victim that during a raid on Naresh Goyal’s property, an ATM card in her name was found, and that Rs 6.8 crore in money laundering had been conducted from that account. He assured her that if she was innocent, they would prioritize her investigation and proceed online. The fraudster claimed he believed she was innocent, but that the Supreme Court required evidence to clear her of the arrest warrant.

The victim was kept under surveillance. The fraudster forwarded letters to her from the Supreme Court and the RBI implicating her in money laundering, stating that this was top secret and that if she told anyone, she would be arrested and fined. There were even implications that the maximum penalty for having an FIR with 17 criminal cases against another phone number, plus the money laundering case, could be a death sentence.

In the RBI letter, which had Shaktikanta Das’s name at the top, it was stated that if the victim wanted to avoid arrest, she needed to submit all her money to the RBI for checking. If found clean, they could clear her of the case and of having received a commission from Naresh Goyal to launder money. The fraudster then initiated the “process” by sending the victim a link to the Supreme Court website where she was instructed to input the last six digits of her Aadhar number and click on “Civil Appeal,” which would generate a Supreme Court order to deposit funds into an RBI bank account.

The fraudster convinced the victim to break her mutual funds and transfer her savings and fixed deposits. He ultimately made her perform G Pay transactions from her bank account Rs 43,40,000. The victim received a letter from the RBI stating that her money would be refunded once the full amount was verified.

After transferring the amount, the fraudster removed her from surveillance. Fraudster did not refund the money, and when the victim called that number, there was no response. The victim lodged an online complaint by calling 1930.