Ahmedabad fraud case

A retired government official in Ahmedabad was cheated to the tune of ₹41 lakh by a gang posing as cyber crime cell officers and threatening to implicate him in a money laundering case.

As per the complaint filed with the Ahmedabad cybercrime, the 58-year-old Prahladnagar resident Shrenik Vaishnav received a call from an unknown number on Apr 18.

The caller, identifying himself as police inspector Pradeep Savant of the Mumbai cyber cell, told Shrenik that a person named Mohammad Iqbal Malek from Mumbai had registered 24 bank accounts using his Aadhaar card and conducted illicit transactions.

He then threatened to send police to Shrenik’s house if he did not cooperate, which terrified Shrenik who agreed to cooperate.

Two other officers then joined the call and questioned Shrenik for 45 minutes. They told him that his phone was under surveillance and that he should not inform anyone about this ongoing investigation.

They threatened to take strict action against him if he did so.

Frightened by the threats, Shrenik switched his phone to airplane mode and connected to WiFi, as per the scammers’ instructions.

Meanwhile, Shrenik was connected via a Skype call, and a police ID card was shown to him to garner his trust.

In the video call, the scammers told Shrenik that all his financial transactions were being investigated under RBI (Reserve Bank of India) regulations. They asked him to transfer ₹10 lakh online with a promise to return the money within 15 minutes. Shrenik complied and transferred ₹10 lakh.

The scammers then asked Shrenik for details of his investments in the stock market and told him to sell his shares and send them the money.

Fearing police action, the victim sold his shares and transferred more than ₹30 lakh to the scammers.

Ahmedabad cybercrime investigations are underway.