Varanasi: Falling into the trap of an invitation to invest as a partner in a Rs 500-crore hospital project by a cyber fraud posing as Mukesh Ambani, a city trader faced loss of Rs 4.9 lakh that was siphoned from his bank account.
Meanwhile, a woman, posing as a CBI officer who linked the trader with the imposter, warned him against disclosing the transaction to anyone as money from his account had been found transferred to the account of an international terrorist organisation. The trader lodged FIR in this connection.
ADCP Varuna Zone Sarvanan T on Wednesday said FIR was lodged on complaint of Sarvesh Kumar Chaubey of Khajuri area with Lalpur Pandeypur police station under section 318(4) of BNS, 66C, and 66D of the IT Act in this connection, following which, police started investigating.
In his complaint lodged on Nov 24, Chaubey told police that he received the call on Facebook Messenger. The caller, disclosing her identity as CBI officer Mohita Sharma, told Sarvesh that she was assigned a special task at Mukesh Ambani's office by the govt. She started the conversation by congratulating Chaubey for winning Rs 4.7 crore on the Kaun Banega Crorepati show.
She added that Ambani was planning to build a Rs 500-crore hospital in East UP and wanted a capable partner like him. She asked for his WhatsApp number, saying Ambani would contact him soon and gave him a number to dial.
Falling into her trap, Chaubey called the number repeatedly. Finally, his call was picked up by a person who posed as Ambani and started discussing the plan for his project. Following the initial conversation, he asked Chaubey to maintain a balance of Rs 7 lakh in his bank account.
Chaubey said this instruction made him doubt the intentions of the caller and he immediately changed his ATM PIN. The next day, Mohita Sharma called, questioning why he changed his PIN, asserting her CBI status and implying he should comply with their calls. Shortly later, the man posing as Ambani called and said that for his project, he had a discussion with the Prime Minister, UP chief minister for land arrangement and Reserve Bank of India governor to get his loan sanctioned. He asked Chaubey to share an OTP received by him.
Chaubey shared the OTP, after which Rs 4.49 lakh was transferred from his account into the account of the fraudsters. When Chaubey called the man, he asked him not to call repeatedly as he was a busy man. Later, the woman called him and warned him that his money was transferred to a terrorist organisation's account, hence he should not mention it to anyone.