In a significant breakthrough, Bengaluru police arrested two delivery boys involved in a massive cyber scam that defrauded a 73-year-old man of Rs 10.61 crore. The arrests, made on Tuesday, followed an investigation led by Telangana’s Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB). The accused, identified as Vinay Kumar (23) and Maruti (28), were detained for their role in providing bank accounts where part of the stolen money was transferred.
The fraudulent operation involved an account opened in the name of Tinkan Technologies Pvt Ltd, into which Rs 4.62 crore was deposited. Police officials suspect that a larger, Chinese-promoted network was behind the sophisticated scam.
Authorities are now searching for a third suspect, who is believed to have coordinated the opening of the bank accounts. This individual offered the two arrested men a commission of Rs 10,000 for each account they opened to facilitate the transfer of illicit funds.
The scam began on September 10, when the elderly victim, a resident of Bengaluru, received a phone call from someone impersonating a public sector bank representative. The caller claimed that an unknown person had misused the victim’s Aadhaar card to open a fraudulent bank account. The victim was then advised to contact the police to report the issue.
In what seemed like an official investigation, the victim was connected to another person who accused him of being involved in a money laundering operation. To further convince him, the fraudsters put him in touch with a woman who pretended to be Bihar IPS officer Navjot Simi. Over the course of the following days, the victim was coerced into transferring his life savings, including all his fixed deposits, into various bank accounts provided by the scammers.
It was only after a month of financial transfers that the senior citizen realized he had been duped. The police investigation revealed the involvement of multiple parties in executing this cyber fraud, with police suspecting a larger network linked to Chinese promoters.
This case serves as a stark reminder of the growing menace of cyber crimes targeting vulnerable individuals, especially senior citizens. The authorities continue to investigate and track down all individuals involved in this complex scam.