Kerala police rescues doctor from online fraud related ‘virtual arrest’

PTI, Dec 18, 2024, 4:18 PM IST

Kottayam: A Kottayam-based doctor has been rescued in real time from a ‘virtual arrest’ by “fakesters” who were posing as Mumbai police officers to defraud him, Kerala police said on Wednesday.

The cyber cell of Kerala police and officials of State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday worked together to identify the fraud being committed on the doctor and managed to recover most of the Rs five lakh that was fraudulently taken from him by the culprits, Kottayam SP Shahul Hameed A said at a press briefing here.

Giving details of the incident, a cyber cell officer told a TV channel that SBI has a financial tracking system for monitoring suspicious transactions and they flagged a Rs five lakh transaction made by the doctor on Tuesday to an account in north India.

“They immediately informed the cyber cell, which forwarded the address of the doctor to the Changanassery police station and an officer was sent from there to his residence to find out what happened,” the officer said.

Kottayam SP Hameed, in his press briefing, said that the officer who went to the doctor’s home was not allowed inside by the doctor on the directions of the fraudster posing as a Mumbai police officer.

“The Inspector heard the person on the phone telling the doctor in Hindi not to go outside or allow anyone inside. So the Inspector entered the home by force and examined the phone.

“On examining the phone, it was found that the fakesters had put him under ‘virtual arrest’. When they saw the Kerala police officer, they cut the call,” the SP said.

The SP further said that due to the prompt steps taken by the police and the financial tracking system of SBI, around Rs 4.65 lakh of the doctor’s money was recovered and only Rs 35,000 was lost.

Giving details of the modus operandi of the fraudsters, the SP said that they sent fake letters with the letter head and emblem of the Reserve Bank of India and the Supreme Court of India to the doctor stating that he was under investigation for money laundering.

“When the doctor contacted them, one of them posed as a Mumbai police officer and said that he was under virtual arrest. They then asked him to send them Rs 5 lakh,” police said.

The officials of the Changanassery branch of SBI, from where the doctor sent the amount to the fraudsters, said that they were suspicious of the transaction, but when they asked the doctor, he told them he was sending the money to a friend.

“Initially, he was not ready to believe that all of it was a fraud and it took some effort to convince him and lodge a complaint,” the cyber cell officer said.

SP Hameed said that the central government, RBI and the police have been issuing advertisements cautioning people to be alert against such frauds.

“People should go through these advertisements and be vigilant and if anything happens, they should immediately call 1930 to block any suspicious online transaction,” he said.