Mumbai: Elderly Woman Duped of ₹78 Lakh in Cyber Fraud; Two Arrested

Mumbai Police's Cyber Cell (North Region) has arrested two individuals for allegedly defrauding a 67-year-old woman of ₹78.7 lakh by threatening her with false allegations of money laundering. The accused, identified as Pritinder Subhashchandra Arora and Gaurav Satish kumar Khurana, were involved in providing bank accounts to cyber fraudsters. 

The victim, a retired employee of a private petroleum company residing in Gorai, Borivali, received a call on October 9 from an unidentified person claiming to be Ajay kumar from the Mumbai High Court's Notification Department. The caller falsely informed her about an arrest warrant against her, citing a complaint from a private bank in Bengaluru.

The fraudster claimed that a bank account had been opened using her Aadhaar details, and ₹2.73 lakh was owed to the bank. The caller further alleged that the Bengaluru police had registered a case against her and asked her to download Skype for further communication.

On Skype, another fraudster posing as a police officer, Vinay kumar Chaubey, accused her of being involved in money laundering. He even sent her a photo of a man named Naresh Goyal, claiming he was arrested for money laundering and that one of the credit cards recovered from his house was in her name, with transactions worth ₹2 crore.

The fraudsters pressured the woman to cooperate with the investigation and threatened legal action if she refused. Despite her protests of innocence, she was told she must assist by transferring her funds for verification and audit. Under this pretext, they asked her to liquidate her fixed deposits and transfer the money to a designated bank account.

On October 10, a woman posing as "Dipali" contacted her, insisting on verifying all her bank accounts and monitoring her health condition. Believing the claims, the victim transferred ₹78.7 lakh in multiple transactions. She was also warned not to disclose the matter to anyone, as doing so could result in her and her family being arrested.

On October 12, the victim's son learned about the incident and immediately realized it was a cyber fraud. He urged her to file a police complaint. She reported the matter to the Borivali Police, Cyber Cell, and Cyber Helpline.

The case was then transferred to the Cyber Cell's North Region, which traced the transactions to bank accounts linked to the accused, Pritinder Arora and Gaurav Khurana.

The accused were found to be associates of a larger network of cyber fraudsters. They had opened multiple bank accounts on the fraudsters' instructions, into which the stolen money was deposited. The duo would then transfer the funds to the fraudsters, receiving a commission for their role.

Following technical investigations, the police apprehended the suspects and uncovered their involvement in the scam. Both were charged under sections related to impersonation, cheating, and criminal conspiracy.

The police are now working to identify and apprehend other members of the cyber fraud syndicate. Meanwhile, authorities have urged citizens to remain vigilant and report any suspicious calls to avoid falling prey to such scams.