Entrepreneur falls victim to fraud, pretends to be cop with Haryanvi accent to get money back

THE POLICE CONDUCTED TWO RAIDS AT THE LOCATIONS FROM THE CELLPHONE TRACKER, BUT THE ACCUSED MANAGED TO GIVE THEM THE SLIP

GURUGRAM: An entrepreneur, who was duped on a social networking platform on the pretext of a medical emergency, posed as a policeman with a Haryanvi accent to call up the accused to get back his money.

His tactic worked and led to the arrest of the conman, who panicked and wired the money in just over half an hour after receiving the phone call.

The conman, a Btech degree holder from Faridabad, was out on bail; he had been involved in an earlier cyber fraud case, the police said.

According to the police, the incident took place on Wednesday around 12.10pm when Himanshu Batra, who runs an education tech start-up and has worked in Silicon Valley, received a message on Facebook from a friend in the US, asking for ₹50,000 on account of a medical emergency.

Batra, a resident of DLF Phase 4, said he had met the person when he was working in California and both had several mutual friends.

“I thought it was a genuine call for help. He texted me saying he was in India and his family member, who was admitted in ICU, needed ₹50,000,” Batra said.

“So, I wired ₹50,000 to the account he mentioned. Later that evening, the friend posted on Facebook that his account was hacked and several people may have received fraudulent messages,” he added.

Batra contacted him and found that his friend was in the US and that Batra had been duped.

He reported the matter to the cyber crime police station and with police assistance, was able to get a phone number linked to the bank account where the money had been transferred.

“The police cooperated with me a lot and made sure I left no stone unturned for my hardearned money. I googled the IFSC code and found that the bank was located in DLF Phase 2. I shared the details with the police. The police had also tracked the location of the accused using the phone number,” Batra said.

The police conducted two raids at the locations from the cellphone tracker, but the accused managed to give them the slip.

They then tried to call his number, posing as courier deliverymen, but the accused did not pick up the phone.

“I then tried calling the phone number. Faking a Haryanvi accent, I told him that I was a cop and he would be chased soon if he did not return the money as the police were privy to his movements. He panicked and returned the money within half an hour of the phone call via online transfer,” Batra said.

On Thursday evening, Batra informed the police that he got his money back and they arrested the accused after tracing his location.

“The accused has a Btech degree and has confessed to his involvement with an aide in the US, who required the money. He was produced in court and sent to six days’ police remand. It is possible that he duped several people using the same modus operandi,” Satish Kumar, the investigating officer, said

A case was registered against the accused under sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66 D of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act at the cyber crime police station on Thursday, the police said.