Three held for cyber fraud 

The Cyber Crime Wing of the Tamilnadu Police has arrested three men who allegedly abetted cyber fraudsters who swindled Rs 3.84 crore from a victim. 

According to police, a complainant in Chennai received a phone call from an individual claiming to be from the Directorate of Enforcement. The scammer inquired about an unknown person, falsely alleging that this person was involved in money laundering activities using the victim’s Aadhaar card. The fraudster threatened the victim, stating that an arrest warrant had been issued against him. 

To add credibility to the scam, the fraudsters sent a fabricated copy of the arrest warrant to him. They then subjected the petitioner to an online interrogation, instructing him to transfer funds from his bank account to a “supervision account” allegedly created to facilitate his release from the fake arrest warrant. Unaware of the scam, the victim complied with the instructions and transferred a substantial amount of Rs. 3.84 crore from his bank accounts to various accounts provided by the fraudster through WhatsApp. It was only later that the victim discovered that a sophisticated scam had been perpetrated. Furthermore, the complainant filed a complaint with the  National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. Based on this, an FIR was registered at Cyber Crime Wing Headquarters, Chennai.

 Subsequently, a special team arrested three accused named Mathangi Harish Babu, 34, a mule account holder who earned Rs.1 Lakh by selling his account and Logesh, 30, from  Ayapakkam, who was also a mule account agent who confessed to providing two bank accounts to the operators and S.Afroz, 31, from Kaavangarai, an operator who utilised trading agencies to convert illicit funds, allegedly for tax evasion purposes.

Published - December 12, 2024 01:10 am IST