Posted By :  Admin1

During a distressing week-long ordeal, a doctor based in Pune faced threats of identity theft and involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering. He was coerced into isolating himself in a hotel, kept on continuous audio calls for 'surveillance', and manipulated into liquidating investments to transfer funds to supposed 'government safe accounts', resulting in a loss of over Rs one crore to cyber criminals. An FIR has been filed at the Cyber police station by the senior medical practitioner in his early 50s. Officials noted that while the cyber fraud resembled a 'drugs in parcel' scam, the relentless pressure from the perpetrators exacerbated the severity of the situation for the victim. Over six days in the first week of March, the doctor became ensnared in a web of deceit and extortion orchestrated by cyber criminals. Earlier this month, the complainant received a call from a man claiming to be a courier executive, informing him that a parcel sent to Taiwan contained five passports and 200 grams of MDMA drugs. Denying any involvement, he was told his identity was being used for drug trafficking and money laundering. He was instructed to go to the Mumbai Crime Branch to file an FIR or register via Skype. Subsequently, he received multiple Skype calls from individuals posing as Mumbai Crime Branch officers, using names of real IAS and IPS officers, including a serving police commissioner in Maharashtra and a former RBI governor. These impostors demanded the victim's Aadhar card, claiming an FIR had been filed in his name, and presented a fake Central Bureau of Investigation letterhead. They coerced him into divulging financial details, then instructed him to isolate in a hotel, where he was kept under constant audio surveillance. He was pressured to transfer over Rs 15 lakh to a fraudulent 'government account' for account verification. Following this, he was manipulated into liquidating investments and savings, transferring over Rs 85 lakh to the same fraudulent accounts. Fake letters from the RBI were sent to confirm receipt of the funds. At this juncture, he was requested to send his family's photo for 'security purposes' and urged to make additional transfers to safeguard his family members from prosecution. It was then that he realized he had fallen victim to an elaborate cyber fraud scheme and sought assistance from the cyber police station. An officer from the Cyber police station stated, "We have initiated an investigation into the case and are gathering information from the bank accounts utilized by the cyber criminals.