Posing as nephew, fraudster dupes Jalandhar's retd Lt Col of Rs 16.2L

Avneet Kaur

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Jalandhar, November 22

A retired Lt Colonel from Jalandhar lost Rs 16.20 lakh to a conman who posed as his nephew and called him on his ‘WhatsApp’ saying that he had been caught up in a fight with some foreign nationals and urgently needed money to resolve the matter.

Now, criminals using social engineering

• Cyber security expert in Jalandhar, Palvinder Singh, who has been approached by several victims to seek help in tracing fraudsters, said after phishing, identity theft, spam emails, malware, ransomware, the cyber criminals have now started using social engineering to fool innocent people
• He said similar cases have also been reported from Adampur, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, Ludhiana, Mohali and Chandigarh. “A group of professional cybercriminals from India are involved in this scam. They are using ‘disposable numbers’ which are easily available on the internet,” he added

The victim, requesting anonymity, said that on November 2 at 12pm, he received a ‘WhatsApp call’ from an international number. Since the caller addressed him as Taya ji (paternal uncle), he thought it was his nephew, who is based in Australia.

The caller told him that he had gone to a club with his friends where he got engaged in a scuffle with some Australian boys. In the scuffle, one of the boys got critically injured, and they had been arrested by the police.

The victim said after the call got disconnected, he received another call from an international number ‘+447441434440’, who claimed to be his nephew’s counsel. “He asked me to transfer Rs 1.2 lakh initially, so that he can start the legal proceedings. Thereafter, he came up with new twists and plots in the story, saying that the boy who was injured had died and he belongs to an extremely rich Australian family, thus, he needs more money to get his nephew out”, he told The Tribune.

He added that the fraudsters presented the story in a way that he just went blank, and couldn’t think of anything else but to save his nephew. “All in all, I deposited a total of Rs 16.20 lakh in seven transactions to the fraudsters’ bank accounts in Bihar and Tamil Nadu. Their emotional trap continued to fool me for around three days. It was on the fourth day, I felt something wasn’t right and I immediately called up my nephew. When I spoke to him and shared the whole story, I found out it was a well-planned cyber scam,” he said.

The victim said he then immediately got his complaint registered at cybercrime helpline number-1930. He said on November 9, he also filed a complaint with division number 7 police, and even sent an e-mail to his bank manager and to the bank managers of PNB branches in Bihar and Tamil Nadu.

“Since November 9, I have been visiting police stations and the commissioner office to inquire about my complaint, but all in vain. The cyber cell officials told me that my complaint has been marked to division number 7, and the division number 7 police personnel say it’s with cyber cell”, he said, while questioning if this is how serious cybercrimes are dealt in our state.

Meanwhile, ACP Model Town, Randhir Kumar, confirmed that they had received a complaint in the case, and the same has now been marked to the city’s cyber cell. Sandeep Kaur, incharge, Jalandhar Cyber Cell, said, “We have received the complaint, and investigation is underway. We have called the victim to our office tomorrow as we require more evidence and other details in the case”. When asked why no FIR has been registered so far, she said, they were yet to verify certain facts in the case.