Bhopal: ‘Digital Home Arrest’ A Trap Of Fraudsters; Cyber HQ Issues Advisory

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The cyber police on Thursday issued an advisory against the trap of cyber fraudsters who are cheating people posing as officials of ED, CBI, NIA and NCB. Most of the calls are coming from Pakistan and other countries.

Recently a case surfaced in Gwalior, in which the online fraudsters held a retired women teacher under ‘Digital House Arrest’ and duped her of Rs 51 lakh. The cyber fraudsters are now calling people through their social media accounts and cheating people in the name of violation of laws.

ADG Yogesh Deshmukh said “Now days the fraudsters are calling up their targets saying that a parcel which they sent/received contains narcotics. And now they will remain under ‘Digital house arrested’ till further orders, and a notice is served to the victim.”

He added that as soon as a person gets such a call, he/she gets frightened and starts following the instructions given by the callers, who pose as officials of some law enforcement agency.

In the ‘Digital House Arrest’, the caller asks them to keep their mobile on and also the internet and the camera, and lock themselves up in a room. The caller also orders that he/she cannot meet and call anyone till their arrest is over.

During the video call, several people posing as officials of National Investigation Agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and Narcotics Control Bureau, appear on the mobile screen and take their statements.

Thereafter they start collecting information about the bank accounts and investments. The victim is given a ‘bank account number’ and asked to transfer the money they have in their bank accounts to an account which they claim belongs to RBI or Government of India. The person is told that after the completion of the probe, the entire amount will be transferred back to him..

Cautioning against such calls, the ADG asked the people to file their complaint on www.cybercrime.gov.in and call on 1930 to register their complaint as soon as they received any such fraudulent call.

Published on: Friday, April 05, 2024, 12:07 AM IST