Chennai: Conmen take elderly couple to ‘Digital Court’, swindle Rs 2.27 crore

CHENNAI: By the time 81-year-old Murugan (name changed) made a phone call to his son-in-law residing in Mumbai asking him to come to Chennai without informing anyone and meet him outside the house in secrecy, he had already lost Rs 2.27 crore of his life savings.

That call would put an end to the month-long agony he and his wife underwent, but the elderly man had sought counsel from a family member only after the fraudsters demanded that the octogenarian borrow money from his children to send them more money. Their two sons live abroad, while the daughter lives with her family in Mumbai.

Murugan and his wife, residents of Velachery, suffered in silence from mid-march till the last week of April, at the hands of cyber fraudsters who started with the now pervasive ‘Digital Arrest’ and escalated it into a virtual court wherein the couple were made to believe that they were being enquired by a ‘special court judge’ on the directions of the Supreme Court.

Digital Arrest involves scammers calling potential targets impersonating as law enforcement officers, typically from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Mumbai Police among others and fabricate a scenario to instil fear and create panic in the minds of the person at the other end of the line. In several cases, the scam happens within a matter of minutes or a few days as the victims end up doing online transfers in fear.

In the case of the Velachery couple, scamsters had made them visit the bank in person and write challans to transfer their money to their mule accounts.

On March 15, the man received a phone call in which the caller, claiming to be an official from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) mentioned a different phone number and claimed that the number registered to a Mumbai address is in his name. Soon, the call was transferred to a ‘CBI official’, who questioned Murugan if he had opened any account with Canara Bank. Murugan said no.

For the next two days, the official used all the tricks of the trade to convince the elderly man that his Aadhaar details were used to open a bank account. “The victim had even told that he did not understand them as they were speaking in Hindi, after which a person speaking in Tamil took over,” according to the police.

The Tamil-speaking person told Murugan, “This is a very serious national case. Don’t divulge about this to anyone.”

The Tamil-speaking fraudster told Murugan that they were probing the Naresh Goyal money laundering case on the directions of the Supreme Court, and that several people who lost money had killed themselves. He emotionally manipulated the elderly man into thinking that he somehow inadvertently was involved in the case.

Over the course of the conversation, the conman made him list all the bank accounts and fixed deposits in his name. He also told Murugan that he and his wife were under surveillance and that they were not to venture out of the house without their permission.

On March 18, under the directions of the fraudsters, Murugan went to the SBI in Tiruvanmiyur and wrote challans to transfer Rs 59 lakh to the account details (ISJ enterprises) sent by the fraudsters. The next day, Murugan was directed to appear before the ‘court’ at 10.30 am.

“Murugan and his wife stood before their cell phone camera. A voice from the other side mentioned that the ‘honourable judge’ has arrived. The ‘special judge’ told the couple that they have been placed under CBI custody for 7 days and asked them not to disclose the details of the case to anyone,” according to the complaint.

A week later, on March 23, Murugan received a call again, this time asking him to go to Tamil Nadu Power Finance Corporation and close all the fixed deposits (FD) in their names and transfer the amount to his SBI bank account. Murugan obliged and made a requisition seeking the same, but was told that it can be done only after the end of the financial year (March 31).

Meanwhile, scamsters coerced Murugan into appealing again and made him visit the office again on March 27.

After the FD amounts got credited to Murugan’s bank account, on April 4, he again visited his bank and wrote a challan to transfer Rs 1.15 crore to the fraudsters bank account (ICICI account in the name of Maa Shitla Enterprises). On the same day, another Rs 21 lakh was transferred to another account. Subsequently, on April 9 and April 15, a total of Rs 26 lakh were transferred.

There was a lull for a few days before another call was made on the night of April 26 to check if Murugan was able to follow through with their latest demand. They had asked Murugan to arrange Rs 20 lakh from the daughter and sons.

The elderly man told them they are not well off, to which the callers asked him to convince them that he needed funds to buy property. Murugan told them that his children are not in favour of purchasing property by taking loans. Only after this call, when the fraudsters demanded the elderly man to borrow money from his children did he make a call to his son-in-law on April 26 asking him to fly down to Chennai for a “secret meeting”.

Just with the details he was given over the phone, the son-in-law realised that the old man had been conned, and made him register a complaint with 1930 cybercrime helpline. “Until the morning I met him, he thought his arrest and court proceedings were genuine. I had to literally drag him to the cybercrime headquarters in Chennai to bust his assumptions,” the son-in-law stated in his complaint with the state police cybercrime headquarters, who have registered a case and begun investigations.

What is the Naresh Goyal case?

In 2023, Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an Rs 538 crore money laundering case linked to Canara Bank. He was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). While Goyal is out on bail, cyber fraudsters have been using the case to target gullible public across the country, by way of ‘Digital Arrest’ claiming that their credentials were used for money laundering.

Digital Arrest

This involves scammers calling potential targets and speaking to them as law enforcement officers, typically from CBI, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Mumbai Police among others, and fabricate a scenario to instil fear and create panic in the minds of the person at the other end of the line.

Why is it important to report immediately?

· There is no ‘golden hour’ to recover money lost to cyber frauds. Dial 24x7 helpline 1930 as soon as possible, say police.

· Dialling 1930 (24X7 helpline) is the first line of defence in cases where money is lost

· In cases of non-financial crimes, complaints can be registered on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal

· A recent Madras High Court circular has instructed all judicial officers that the recovering the money lost in such cons must start based on the complaint registered in NCRP followed by a report submitted by the cybercrime police without insisting on FIR

· Based on the NCRP acknowledgment and the cyber police report, victims can file a petition under Section 503 BNSS in their jurisdictional court to claim the amount frozen in suspects’ bank accounts without waiting for an FIR to be registered

Also Read: Tamil Nadu: Two elderly in Coimbatore lose Rs 36 lakh in digital arrest con