Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A senior citizen was duped of Rs 15 lakh by a conman, who posed himself as his relatives from Australia and demanded money saying that he was arrested by the police after his visa expired there.
The crime branch registered a case and started a search for the conman on the basis of the virtual number from which he had made a phone call to the complainant.
Additional DCP (crime) Rajesh Dandotiya said that a 75-year-old man lodged a complaint on Thursday that he received a call on his WhatsApp number and the caller introduced himself as one of his relatives (son of wife’s sister) who lives in Australia.
He informed him over the phone that the police have arrested him in Australia after his visa expired. Now the police would file a case against him and send him to jail. He said that the police will release him only after I pay Rs 15 lakh to them.
The complainant informed the crime branch officer that the son of his wife's sister lives in Australia so the complainant assumed that he made a phone call. He was crying while talking to the complainant. When he asked him about his voice, the accused replied that his voice changed due to a sore throat.
The victim got convinced by his crying and went to the bank and deposited Rs 15 lakh in the account mentioned by the accused. Later, the victim came to know that nothing like this happened to his nephew nor was he arrested by the police in Australia.
After this, he lodged a complaint with the cyber cell operated by the Crime Branch. The bank account was held by the officer and investigation is on into the case. The officer further said that we have received many such complaints this year.
From January to August this year, about 430 complainants have been received by the crime branch. The complainants have lost Rs 2.2 crore and the crime branch could only return Rs 40 lakh to the online fraud victims.
The officials said that the people should report the online fraud incidents on the helpline number 7049124445 immediately.
