Cybercrooks strike again, two lose ₹23L in separate cases

New Delhi: A software developer and a businessman in east Delhi have become the latest victims of cybercrime. While one lost Rs 20 lakh to crooks posing as investment bankers, the other was tricked into paying Rs 2.7 lakh after being threatened by fake cops to implicate him in different cases. Police have filed FIRs and are probing both the cases.
In the first case, which was reported on May7, the businessman was directed to a link on a social media platform that led to an investment academy.“This academy offered online classes on investment in the stock market. Over a period of two months, I participated in these classes, which were conducted both in the afternoon and evening. Subsequently, the agents told me to download a third-party app in order to trade. In this application, users were provided recommendations for purchasing stocks, ” the complaint read.
The businessman noted significant profits on a daily basis, ranging between 15% and 20%.
“Encouraged by the trend, he initially invested Rs 3 lakh and observed profits. He submitted a total of Rs 20 lakh over the course of one month and the profits reached Rs 50 lakh on the app. However, when he attempted to withdraw these profits, his funds were frozen and he was removed from the app. Upon realising the scam, he contacted the cyber cell in East Delhi,” a police officer said.
In the second incident, the software developer informed police that around 9.30 am on April 29, he received a call from an unknown mobile number. “The caller claimed to be an employee of a courier company in Mumbai and said a parcel had been booked using my Aadhaar Card and mobile number without my knowledge. The caller claimed that the parcel, which was to be delivered in a Taiwan city, contained five travel passports, three bank credit cards, four kilograms of clothes, a laptop, Rs 35,000 and 200 grams of MDMA (a type of drug),” the complainant said.
The call was later transferred to “Mumbai Police’s cyber cell.”
“A police officer in uniform told me that many bank accounts had been opened in my name using my Aadhaar Card and mobile number and that several cybercrime cases were registered against me. He then asked me to transfer 2.7 lakh to a bank account number for verification of my identity,” the complainant stated.
After realising the scam, the software developer filed a complaint on the national cyber crime portal and also approached the cyber police station in East Delhi.