Delhi Police has made eight arrests in three states in relation to high-value cyber fraud case in which an elderly NRI couple was allegedly defrauded out of over 14 crore by a so-called digital arrest scam. Officials have also established connections to a global cyber-fraud scheme whereby the suspects are located in Cambodia and Nepal, the investigation has revealed.
Police also report that during the arrests, there was evidence of well organised ring based on the fact that the accused people pretended to be officials of law enforcement agencies so as to intimidate the victims and get hold of huge sums of money. News agency reported that the fraudsters supposedly transferred the stolen money via several mule bank accounts to prevent being detected. The Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha accused were caught after a well coordinated effort by the Delhi Police.
Arrested people are Divyang Patel (30), Krutik Shitole (26), Mahavir Sharma (27), Ankit Mishra, Arun Kumar Tiwari (45), Pradyuman Tiwari, Bhupender Kumar Mishra (37), and Aadesh Kumar Singh (36), the officials said.
The case came to the limelight when a 77 year old woman who lived in Greater Kailash region of South Delhi went to the police. She claimed that she was defrauded 14.84 crore having received a phone call in December last year. Panic and fear were created by the caller, who alleged that a SIM card registered to her name was involved in a money laundering incident.
The victim was then put on a what the fraudsters referred to as a digital arrest. The accused posed as a police and CBI official where he reportedly demonstrated to her a forged arrest warrant and arranged fake court hearings via video calls. The woman was under a continuous psychological pressure, during which she was pushed into giving away huge amounts of money during a series of days.
The police indicated that it was investigating further in order to trace the rest of the members of the network as well as the international connections that were made in the scam.
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