Bengaluru:
Within five hours, sitting at home in India, retired professor Kamta Prasad Singh handed over his hard-earned savings to online fraudsters by impersonating the police. Cyber crime known as “digital arrests” – where fraudsters pose as law enforcement officers online and order people to transfer huge amounts of money – has become so rampant that Prime Minister Narendra Modi Has issued a warning.
Singh told AFP the money was his life savings.
“For years I have given up having tea outside, walking to avoid spending on public transport,” the 62-year-old man said, his voice breaking.
“Only I know how I saved my money.”
Police say scammers have taken advantage of India’s breakneck pace of data digitization, the huge gap in awareness about everything from personal details to online banking and many basic internet security.
Fraudsters are using technology to perpetrate data breaches, targeting information that their victims think is only available to government officials, and making otherwise unlikely demands seem credible.
PM Modi said in a radio broadcast in October that Indians had emptied their bank accounts “out of fear”, adding that fraudsters “put so much psychological pressure on the victim”.
‘devastated’
Mobile phones and especially video calling have allowed fraudsters to reach people directly into their homes.
India runs the world’s largest biometric digital identification program – called “Aadhaar” or Foundation in Hindi – a unique card issued to India’s more than a billion people, and their need for it for financial transactions is increasing. Is.
Scammers often claim they are police investigating suspicious payments, quoting their target’s Aadhaar number to appear genuine. They then request their victims to make a “temporary” bank transfer to validate their accounts before stealing the cash.
Singh, from India’s eastern state of Bihar, said the web of lies began when he received a call from the Telecom Regulatory Authority in December.
“He said…the police were going to arrest me,” Singh said.
The fraudsters told Singh that his Aadhaar ID was being misused for illegal payments.
Intimidated, Singh agreed to prove that he had control over his bank account, and after increasing threats, transferred over $16,100 (Rs 13,92,532).
“I’ve lost sleep, I don’t feel like eating,” he said. “I’m ruined.”
‘Rot in proverbial hell’
“The rise in online scams is worrying because of how legitimate they look and sound,” said Sushil Kumar, a police officer who has handled cyber crimes for half a decade. The criminals range from school dropouts to highly educated individuals.
“They know what to search for on the Internet to get basic information about how government agencies work,” Kumar said.
According to the latest government data, 17,470 cyber crimes were recorded in India in 2022, including 6,491 cases of online bank fraud.
The tricks vary. Kaveri, 71, told her story to AFP on the condition that her name be changed.
He said the fraudsters posed as officials of US courier FedEx and claimed to have sent a package containing medicines, passports and credit cards.
They presented her full name and Aadhaar ID details as “evidence”, followed by forged letters from the Central Bank of India and the country’s top investigating agency Central Bureau of Investigation.
“They wanted me to send money, which would be returned within 30 minutes,” he said. He said he was convinced when he sent a “properly signed letter”.
He transferred nearly $120,000 of his savings from the house sale in four installments over six days before the fraudsters disappeared.
Kaveri says those days felt “like a tunnel”.
Meeta, 35, a private health professional from Bengaluru, who did not want to reveal her identity, was duped by the fake police through a video call.
“With the sound of walkie-talkies, it looked like it was a proper police station,” he said.
The scammers asked her to prove she controlled her bank account by taking out a loan of 200,000 rupees ($2,300) through her bank’s phone app, before demanding a “temporary” transfer.
Despite making it clear to the bank that she has been defrauded, Meeta is being asked to return the loan.
“I have almost lost all faith in banks,” he said, before cursing the thieves.
“I hope they rot in the proverbial hell.”
(TagstoTranslate)Digital Arrest
