Cyber criminals recently tricked an elderly man in Hyderabad by pretending to be police officers from the crime branch. They made a late-night WhatsApp call and claimed that money had been sent to terrorists from his account. The man ended up giving them Rs 2 lakh.
The criminals made a video call to the retired employee, with one of them wearing a police uniform and identifying himself as a Crime Branch SI from Tilaknagar, Mumbai. He warned the man not to tell his wife about their conversation, saying it was related to national security.
During the call, the fake officer told the man that the RBI had found transactions to terrorists from his bank account. He claimed that a case of money laundering had been filed, and that the man’s account had been frozen. The man was told that he needed to pay Rs 2 lakh to prevent any further action.
The elderly man, believing the scam, transferred the money to the criminal’s account. The next day, he realized he had been scammed and reported the incident to the cyber crime police.