Assam: Scammers posing as CBI and customs officials a new menace

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: Online scammers are adopting novel methods to trick people, and the latest involves online fake threat calls, mostly on Whatsapp, from fake customs department or CBI officials. The CBI recently issued a warning to the people to be wary about people posing as senior CBI officials and threatening arrest over supposed online crimes.

According to sources, in one of the methods used by the frauds, an unknown caller will call the victim, introducing himself as the official of the customs department, and inform the victim that he or she has sent a parcel to some foreign country to a friend, and the same has been caught by the customs department. Then the caller will demand money for ‘resolving’ the matter.

Another method is to threaten the victim that his or her Aadhar card has been used to operate multiple bank accounts in which fraudulent financial transactions have been made for large amounts of money. Money laundering is also alleged to have taken place. They made a fake setting of a police station and showed themselves in uniforms. At last, they would provide a bank account number and ask the victim to deposit all savings into that account to check whether those funds were legal or not. Further, the fraudster informs that the money will be returned back to the victim’s account if the money is found legal. They also threaten the person not to inform local police and bank officials during the time of money transfer. Victims, out of fear, deposit their money at the account provided by them and lose all their money.

In a recent case, cyber cheats from Assam duped industrialist and Padma Bhushan awardee S P Oswal, chairperson of the Vardhman Group, of Rs 7 crore by purportedly masquerading as members of a CBI team probing misuse of his Aadhaar for passport and financial fraud. 

Ludhiana Police arrested two suspects from Guwahati and recovered Rs 5.2 crore from them. Investigators said this was the highest amount seized in a cybercrime case in the country, as revealed from a database. The duo allegedly convinced Oswal about CBI registering a case against him after finding that his Aadhaar had been used to send a parcel to Malaysia containing 58 fake passports and 16 debit cards. The chairman of the Vardhman Group lodged a complaint after he realised he had been tricked into transferring money to two accounts, amounting to Rs 7 crore.

 During calls from fraudsters posing as CBI officials, generally video calls on WhatsApp, the caller will use the logo of the CBI in the background to convince the victim. The CBI has asked people to be cautious and advised them not to fall prey to such scams, and if they witness any such suspicious attempt, it should be immediately reported to the local police.

The probe agency wrote on social media platform X, “Please be alert about scams misusing the names and designations of senior CBI officers. Fake documents carrying the signatures of CBI officers, including the Director, CBI, coupled with fake warrants/summons are circulated to commit fraud, especially on the Internet/emails/WhatsApp, etc.”

 Also read: Guwahati: Notorious Scammer Arrested For Duping People Of Crores (sentinelassam.com)

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