The worrying rise of fraudsters on the prowl online

Do you remember D. K. Panda, the 1971 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre who, one fine day while in service, declared himself to be Radha, the divine consort of Lord Krishna? He would arrive in office dressed as a woman; he began signing official paperwork as “Doosri Radha" (Radha, the second). When his kin, close associates, and subordinates began making fun of him, he sought voluntary retirement from the police service. Panda now lives in Prayagraj.

He was all but forgotten until a few weeks ago but was back in the news after he lodged a complaint alleging criminal intimidation and cheating with the Dhoomanganj police. Panda claimed some people had been trying to extort ₹8 lakh from him by threatening to frame him in a terror funding case.

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He told the police that he had built a ₹381-crore fortune through online trading. When he tried to redeem that sum into his bank account, a person—who Panda identified as Arav Sharma from Cyprus—called him and asked him to deposit ₹8 lakh towards tax, conversion, liquidity, transaction fee, and other charges incurred on account of the trading.

Panda got suspicious and tried to investigate Sharma’s veracity. Meanwhile, Sharma called up Panda, verbally abused him, and threatened to frame the former police officer in a terror funding case if he didn’t deposit the money to an account he specified. The police are investigating the matter, but no arrest has been made in the matter.

Let’s look at another such case.

‘Digital arrest’

Vashishth, a retired bank manager who lives in Noida, received a call in the afternoon on 21 October. The caller informed Vashishth that a courier the retired banker had booked with FedEx contained 16 fake passports, 58 ATM cards, and 140 grams of drugs. The caller then connected him to a “CBI officer" who identified himself as Anil Yadav. Yadav also introduced another person, Sunil, to Vashishth as a head constable. These fraudsters kept the unsuspecting retiree in “digital arrest".

During his “arrest", Vashishth was ordered to deposit ₹8 lakh to an account Yadav specified. Ironically, Vashishth had been the manager at the same branch from which he made the deposit. He, however, kept mum about the transaction out of fear. Later, the fraudsters also provided Vashishth with an online receipt. It bore the signature of the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) governor Shaktikanta Das. Needless to say, the signature was forged.

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The documents that were given to him would seem genuine to those who are technically challenged. The person who introduced himself as CBI officer Anil Yadav even sent Vashishth an identity card, which also turned out to be fake. The con job was so elaborate, professional, and well-thought-out that even the bank veteran was duped.

When Vashishth realized he had been conned, he contacted the police, who immediately froze the account the fraudsters had asked for the money to be deposited. But by then, only ₹49,000 was left in it. Police also found that the opening balance in that account was only ₹20 that morning, but in just eight hours, it spiked to ₹4,48,43,000. This indicated that several other people were also being conned during the same time.

More victims

Big sums of money were constantly being transferred through UPI and RTGS into various accounts. The bank account Vashishth deposited his money into belonged to Ishwar Finance in Mumbai. It was clear that many teams of fraudsters were at work simultaneously, and that many unsuspecting people were becoming their victims.

Such frauds are growing by leaps and bounds. A press release issued by the chief executive officer of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre bears testimony to this fact.

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According to the press release, within the first three months of 2024, fraudsters had extorted sums totalling ₹120.3 crore from unsuspecting people through “digital arrests" such as the one in Vashishth’s case. Apart from this, people were duped of ₹1,420.48 crore in online trading, ₹222.58 crore through investing, and ₹13.23 crore in dating scams.

The government will do its bit but the harsh truth is that we need to take personal responsibility in developing awareness and remain alert against the threat of “digital arrests" and phishing.

It’s necessary because fraudsters mostly assume the identity of security or government agencies while hunting their prey.

We’ll have to be alert to this pack of wolves.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief, Hindustan. Views are personal.