Railway official loses Rs 9 lakh online as fraudsters pose as CBI men in Maharashtra, present him before ‘judge’

PTI, Sep 18, 2024, 10:53 AM IST

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Mumbai: A railway official lost Rs 9 lakh to cyber fraudsters posing as CBI officers, who told him that he was involved in a money laundering case and then produced him before a “judge” via video call, police said.

The incident occurred on Monday and the victim was kept on a video call by the fraudsters for around 20 hours, an official said.

The 59-year-old victim works as Principal Chief Electrical Engineer (Construction) at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and stays at Colaba in south Mumbai, he said.

“On September 16 morning, the victim received a voice-recorded message on his mobile phone. It said his mobile phone will be blocked within two hours and for any queries he should dial ‘0’ from his number. Accordingly, the victim pressed ‘0’, following which a video call got activated,” he said.

The caller introduced himself as a CBI officer and said he wanted to investigate the railway official in a money laundering case as his mobile number was linked to one bank account which was used in the scam, he said.

The victim told the caller that he does not have any connection with any case, and he does not have a second mobile number, the official said.

“The caller then told him that a mobile number was registered in his name and that was linked to a bank account used for the Rs 5.8 million money laundering case and there are 247 accounts, which are linked with one Naresh Goyal,” he added.

The victim went to his office for work. But the callers asked him to return home stating that CBI officers wanted to investigate him in the case. Accordingly, the victim went home, following which a video call was activated at 2 pm.

“During this time, the fraudsters obtained all the details about the railway official’s family background, his finance and property details from him. The accused then told him that he would be produced before the court online and the judge will decide the matter,” the police official said.

The video call remained active till 9.30 am on Tuesday, where the caller alerted the victim that he was being produced before the court. The victim was produced before a person posing as a judge, who told him that he found some unauthorised bank transactions from his account and asked him to provide all the bank details, he added.

The fraudsters asked the victim to go to the bank and deposit Rs 9 lakh into the bank account provided by them. On their instructions, went to his bank and transferred the amount through RTGS, according to him.

But soon after depositing the money, the victim realised that he had been duped. He went to the bank manager with a request to stop the transaction, but it had been completed by them, he said.

He lodged a complaint at the Colaba police station, based on which a case of cyber fraud was registered, the official said, adding that a probe was underway.