MICA president duped of ₹1.15 cr in cyber fraud
Updated: Mar 24th, 2024
A complaint has been registered by Ahmedabad Cyber Crime that a senior citizen living in Bodakdev and working at MICA Institute, Shailendra Raj Mehta, has been defrauded of ₹1.15 crore.
The scammers had threatened Mehta of an account in his name used for illegal activities, and a parcel containing drugs.
Shailendra Raj Mehta, a president at the MICA Institute of Ahmedabad, received a call on Mar 20 from an unknown number. The caller identified himself as a FedEx employee and asked for the Aadhaar and mobile number from Mehta.
The caller informed Mehta about a courier, to be sent to Taiwan, in his name. Mehta was informed that the courier contained five passports, a laptop, and 200 gm of MD drugs.
The call was then forwarded by the caller to Prakash, who claimed to be an officer with Mumbai Cyber Cell. Prakash told Mehta that a minister named Nawab Malik is in jail for the crime of money laundering and terror funding.
Prakash added that Malik had opened around 300 to 400 bogus bank accounts, one of them belonging to Mehta.
As Mehta found the call to be suspicious, he asked Prakash to speak to his secretary. However, Prakash asked Mehta not to inform anyone about this.
Later, Mehta received a Skype call, where he was told that his and his family’s life was in danger. Another call, a day later, told Mehta that a CBI warrant had been issued in his name, and a number of transactions made by him had appeared on the RBI server.
The callers told Mehta that to know more about the account and the transactions, he had to deposit an amount to a bank account, which would be later returned.
Mehta transferred ₹1 cr to Punjab National Bank’s Quality Food Traders bank account and another amount of ₹15 lakh to other bank accounts.
When the amount was not returned, Mehta realised the scam and filed a complaint.
An investigation has been started by Ahmedabad Cyber Crime on the basis of technical surveillance.
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