The police said Choudhari got a lot of information on Mehta from his social media profile and that many cyber fraudsters study their victims before targeting them. (Representative Image/Reuters) A 46-year-old cyber fraudster was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly duping a of Rs 10 lakh by posing as his US-based friend on WhatsApp and requesting him to transfer the amount for an emergency. The complainant, Ajay Mehta, runs an NGO. The police said that earlier this week, a cyber fraudster posing as Mehta’s US-based friend Sriram Someshwar started chatting with him on WhatsApp.
“The number was unknown but Mehta did not suspect anything, as the two rarely communicated on WhatsApp and the fraudster had used Someshwar’s photo as his display picture. The fraudster requested Mehta to transfer the money to some bank account for an emergency and said he would return it within 24 hours,” said an officer.
The next day, when Mehta asked for his money back, the fraudster sent him the photo of a firearm. “Mehta then contacted his US-based friend who told him that he had never asked for money. He then approached the central cyber police station,” the officer added.
“We have recovered Rs 8.13 lakh from five to six bank accounts and registered an FIR on Monday. Based on technical evidence, we arrested the accused on Tuesday,” said Sanjay Govilkar, senior inspector of central region cyber police station.
Accused Samrat Choudhari (46) was arrested from Kandivali. The police said his aide is on the run.
The police said Choudhari got a lot of information on Mehta from his social media profile and that many cyber fraudsters study their victims before targeting them.
“Please lock your social media profiles so they are inaccessible to strangers and avoid accepting friend requests from strangers,” said Govilkar.
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