The Panchkula Police recently announced the resolution of three significant cyber-crime cases, leading to the arrest of seven individuals involved in fraudulent schemes across the district. The cases, which involved fake bank calls, impersonation, and blackmail, resulted in victims losing substantial sums of money, with one victim defrauded of Rs10 lakh.
In the first case, Col Debasis Chaudhary (retd), a 77-year-old resident of Sector 2, Panchkula, was scammed out of Rs10 lakh by fraudsters posing as bank employees and police officers. The incident occurred on June 20, 2024, when Col Chaudhary received a call from someone pretending to be a bank employee who claimed that there was an issue with his credit card.
The scammer transferred the call to another person, who posed as a police officer, asking for Col Chaudhary’s bank details. Soon after, the victim received a WhatsApp video call from a person claiming to be from Bandra Police Station, interrogating him about his alleged connections with a man arrested in a money laundering case. The scammers even sent a fake letter from the Enforcement Directorate with the victim’s photograph, claiming that an investigation was ongoing.
To add further legitimacy to their scam, the fraudsters threatened both Col Chaudhary and his wife with arrest and told them that the case was being transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). To avoid the arrest, they convinced him to transfer a Rs10 lakh surety with the promise of a refund within two days. The victim, trusting the fake documents and calls, transferred the amount.
The Panchkula Police arrested four persons in connection with this case, identified as Vishnu, Sonu, Hemant Kumar, and Sanjay Kumar, all from Rajasthan.
In another case, Ram Kanwar Dalal, a retired government employee from Sector 25, Panchkula, was defrauded of Rs9.10 lakh by scammers posing as his nephew and his friend. On April 1, 2024, Dalal received a call from someone claiming to be his nephew, who said that he had deposited money into Dalal’s account for his mother’s treatment. The caller then asked Dalal to forward the amount to his friend, who would use it for urgent medical expenses.
Dalal received a WhatsApp receipt and was assured that the money would be refunded within 24 hours. Over the next few days, the victim was further tricked into transferring additional sums of Rs4 lakh and Rs5.10 lakh, believing he was helping his nephew. However, when Dalal tried to follow up on the transfer, he realized that he had been duped.