A retired Power Grid engineer in Kanpur was trapped in a carefully planned cyber fraud for almost three weeks. Fraudsters posed as senior CBI officers, Supreme Court staff, and even a judge. They created a false legal environment on video calls and extorted forty two point five lakh rupees from the victim. They claimed the money was needed for an investigation linked to Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal’s alleged money laundering case.
The fraud began on seven August when Rajendra Prasad Singh from Juhi Kalan in Barra received a WhatsApp call. The caller claimed to be an IPS officer with the CBI. He said that a fake bank account had been opened in Mumbai’s Canara Bank using the victim’s Aadhaar. He added, “This account has been used in the Naresh Goyal money laundering case. The matter is under Supreme Court scrutiny. You must join the online hearing immediately.”
The sixty seven year old retired engineer was told to stay on video call at all times. He was instructed not to speak to anyone as it was said to be part of a CBI protocol.
To make the scheme look real, the fraudsters created backgrounds that looked like CBI offices. They used people pretending to be CBI officers, showed official files, and even staged a fake Supreme Court courtroom. On eighteen August, they held a full online hearing. A man dressed formally, posing as a judge, told him, “Your funds have been cleared in the preliminary investigation. The final report will be submitted within three days.” The setting convinced the victim that the case was real.
The gang then told him that all his savings had to be temporarily transferred to RBI verification accounts. This was to prove he was not involved in money laundering. Between eleven and twenty one August, while under pressure and constant monitoring, he transferred forty two point five lakh rupees through five RTGS transactions to two savings and current accounts in Mumbai. Each time he transferred money, he was told, “Your funds are completely safe. They will be returned within seventy two hours after verification.”
On twenty six August, the fraudsters called again and claimed that a Supreme Court lawyer needed one lakh rupees as fees. When the victim asked them to deduct it from the money he had already sent, they refused and said, “This is a separate court fee. It must be paid immediately.” This raised suspicion, but by then the victim was exhausted and confused.
His son, who works in Noida, realised something was wrong. He rushed home and found his father still on a video call with someone claiming to be a CBI officer. He ended the call and took his father to the Cyber Police Station. A complaint was filed and an FIR was registered at Barra Police Station on twenty six November.
DCP South later clarified, “There is no such thing as a digital arrest. The scammers exploited fear and created psychological pressure to extort money. The accounts into which the money was transferred were emptied within minutes.”
Police have begun a technical investigation into the bank accounts, mobile numbers, and locations used by the gang. Early findings indicate that the operation is part of a wider syndicate involved in fake CBI and fake court video call scams.
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