Man arrested for alleged online fraud

The Kochi City cyber police arrested a man on charge of cheating a person of ₹5 lakh through cyber fraud.

The arrested is Muhammed Thufail of Koduvally in Kozhikode. According to the police, he initially rang up the victim in the guise of a courier company staff and told him that a courier despatched from his Mumbai address to Shanghai in China with ATM cards, laptop, cash, and MDMA had been intercepted.

Later, Muhammed allegedly came on a video call masquerading as an officer of the Mumbai cybercrime police and told the victim that the Central Bureau of Investigation had registered a case against him. The victim was then reportedly asked to transfer ₹5 lakh to an account claimed to be in the name of the notary for the court to verify his account. He duly complied with it.

The victim then reported the matter to the national crime reporting portal and the helpline number 1930 for reporting online fraud in February when the alleged fraud took place. A case registered by the Ernakulam Town South police had since been transferred to the Kochi City cyber police.

Muhammed was traced to Kozhikode following an investigation carried out on the basis of online transactions and details received from the national crime reporting portal. The investigation has been further expanded to other States, said cyber police sources.

Published - October 04, 2024 12:17 am IST