A 76-year-old doctor from Pimpri Chinchwad was allegedly duped of Rs 28 lakh by cyber criminals, one of them posing as a CBI officer, who threatened to arrest him in a credit card fraud case. The fraudsters told him that the Supreme Court and Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also issued notices against him.
According to the septuagenarian, he received a WhatsApp call on November 28 while examining patients and the caller, a ‘CBI officer’ who identified himself as Ravi Kumar, warned the doctor that he was under surveillance and “digital arrest”.
The caller said that the doctor’s name was flagged in a credit card fraud as he had received a Rs 20 lakh commission on a transaction of Rs 1 crore. “The caller told him that if the he did not pay Rs 20 lakh, an arrest warrant will be issued against him. Though the complainant denied any involvement in any such case, he was told that two notices — one from the Supreme Court and another from ED — had been issued against him. The fraudster posing as a CBI officer told him that since he was a senior citizen and a doctor, senior lawyers of the Supreme Court will help and he will have to take actions as instructed,” said an officer.
The ‘CBI officer’ then connected the call with a fraudster posing as ‘Supreme court lawyer’ who sought all financial and personal information from the complainant on the pretext of getting his case details, said the police.
The complainant was later told that as he was being placed under surveillance and ‘digital arrest’ he was prohibited from discussing the case with anyone or even talking to anyone, the police said. The doctor was asked to answer a call every two hour and give updates.
“The next day he again received a call and was asked to deposit Rs 28 lakh to particular accounts saying it was for clearing his name from the case. The complainant was instructed to go to the bank keeping his phone on and then transfer Rs 28 lakh to two separate accounts. The complainant did so as instructed and told the caller he had made the transfer,” the police said adding that the doctor realised that he was cheated after his son got to know about the developments.
The doctor, who has over 40 years of medical practice, lodged a complaint at Pimpri police station.
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