Bhubaneswar: Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Crime Branch cracked down on a cybercrime racket that was involved in duping people of crores of rupees through novel means, a source said Sunday. According to the source, EOW has frozen 17 bank accounts linked to the racket.
The accused allegedly lot laid down an elaborate plot to dupe unsuspecting targets by impersonating at times as courier delivery associates and at others as associates of law enforcement agencies.
A source in the EOW said that the fraudsters duped several people across the country by using names of courier companies and faking as NCB, CBI, ED, and as police officers. The scammers extorted money from gullible people who wanted to avoid unnecessary probe by agencies in crimes they did not commit.
The miscreants allegedly used fake identity cards to appear genuine in front of victims.
The cyber-financial fraud came to the fore after a woman identified as Ratna Tripathy from Nayapalli area in Bhubaneswar alleged that she has been duped by a gang.
The victim said that she received a phone call June 19 where the caller introduced himself as an employee of FedEx – a courier services firm — from Hyderabad. He told her that a parcel containing six passports, one laptop, five ATM cards, and 150 grams of narcotic drugs sent to her has been intercepted by ‘NCB Mumbai’ officials.
Though the victim denied sending or ordering any parcel, the caller asked her to come to the Narcotic Bureau Cell in Mumbai to clarify her point. The caller also threatened that if she cannot attend physically, she can connect to some ‘Mr. Gill’ of Narcotic Bureau, Mumbai over Skype. He further threatened her that she would be prosecuted under narcotics and money laundering charges if she fails to do so.
Later, ‘Mr. Gill’ called the woman impersonating as Head of the Narcotic Bureau Cell, Mumbai. He told her that a case of money laundering, narcotics smuggling, and violation of crypto norms has been filed against her due to illegal transactions through her bank accounts.
Gill also accused the woman of having links with an alleged gangster Islam Malik, the victim alleged.
The scammer on Skype coerced the victim to transfer Rs 1.5 lakh to one “account of RBI” for verification in order to prove her innocence. She was assured that if nothing illegal or suspicious was found with her bank transactions, the amount will be immediately returned within 15 minutes, the source added.
Subsequently, the victim out of nervousness sent the amount from her bank accounts to the aforementioned account through UPI and IMPS. However, she never received the money back.
The EOW found that the amount deposited by the victim landed in a mule account (usually a fake account created with fake documents and used in money laundering) of one ‘Jagdamba Enterprises’ in Punjab.
The investigation also revealed that the scammers had extorted Rs 5.58 crore from several people across the country using this single account within 2-3 days. The money was subsequently transferred to different mule accounts and ultimately a major chunk was withdrawn through an ATM in Dubai, UAE.
An EOW source informed that further probe is underway and efforts are on to nab the mastermind and handlers of the racket.
PNN