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PUNE: Fraudsters, posing as officers of the ministry of telecommunications and the CBI, cheated a businessman (57) of Rs1.03 crore on March 3 after threatening him of legal action under the provisions of the National Security Act.

A resident of Aundh, the victim runs a unit of automobile components in Alandi. His lawyers, Satya Muley and Amruta Kulkarni, pursued his case, following which a case of cheating under the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act was registered with the Pune cyber police on Friday. According to the complaint, the victim received a call from a fraudster on his cellphone. The caller claimed to be an officer of the ministry of telecommunications.

“The fraudster told the businessman that some people were misusing his Aadhaar card details and sending fraudulent messages to random people. The scamster said an FIR was registered against the victim with the Andheri police,” the FIR stated.

“The victim received a video call from another number, who claimed to be a police officer. He sent a fabricated notice on CBI letterhead to him,” the police said. Muley said, “The victim was then informed that his case had been taken over by the CBI. A caller then threatened the man not to disclose the matter to anyone as the case was under the National Security Act. The fraudsters then said they had arrested some people in the case.”

He said, “The scamsters then asked the victim if he held any black money and told him that the RBI had instructed them to check his bank accounts. They threatened the businessman to file a case against him under the National Security Act and Money Laundering Act, and told him to transfer money to their accounts to evade arrest. The victim transferred a total of Rs1.03 crore to eight different bank accounts.”

Three others conned

A woman (48) from Pashan lodged a complaint with the Chatushrungi police on Friday stating that some fraudsters posed as officers from Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and a private courier company, and cheated her for Rs30.1 lakh by threatening to book her in a drugs case on Wednesday. A man allegedly told her over the phone that there was an FIR with the NCB, Mumbai, in which a parcel to a foreign country had been seized. He said an FIR had been registered with the Andheri police in which some MD drugs, a laptop, five passports and some Aadhaar cards had been seized.

A techie (34) from Wagholi lodged a complaint with the Lonikand police stating that fraudsters had cheated him for Rs10 lakh on March 11 in a similar fashion. Another man (55) from Kondhwa was cheated of Rs1.62 lakh.

  • Published On Apr 7, 2024 at 01:55 PM IST

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