Doctor duped of ₹45 lakh in cyber fraud

A woman doctor in Noida was allegedly duped of ₹45 lakh recently by cyber frauds who posed as Mumbai crime branch officers over a video call, and made her transfer the money on the pretext of an “investigation into her bank accounts”, police said Friday.

According to police, the complainant, Dr Aarti Choudhary (51), a resident of Vasundhara Enclave in Delhi, was put under a “digital arrest” by the frauds. They virtually restrained her movement by monitoring her on video call and threatening her with dire consequences if she disconnected.

Based on her complaint, police have registered a case under sections of the Indian Penal Code and relevant provisions of the IT Act.

In her complaint filed with the Cyber Crime police station in Sector 36, Noida, Chaudhary, who runs a clinic in Sector 49, said she received a call on May 6 from someone posing as a courier service executive. He said that a parcel in her name, sent from Mumbai to Thailand, was seized by customs officials.

“The caller, Ishan Verma, said the parcel had five passports, two credit cards, 4kg of clothes and 140 grams of MDMA (meth),” Chaudhary said in her complaint.

The caller told her that she had to file a complaint regarding her name being ‘mistakenly’ written on the parcel with the Mumbai crime branch else action would be taken against her, and he transferred the video call with her to another person.

“A person who identified himself as Rajveer told me to download the Skype video chat app and connect with him. Once on that video call, Rajveer took all my bank and personal details and asked me for my Aadhaar card. He then told me that my bank account had been linked to some money laundering transactions,” the doctor said.

A third man, called Aditya Keshav, also entered the call, she said. “Keshav told me that he could clear me of all charges through video surveillance for 24 hours. If not, I would have to go to Mumbai and authorities would take me in 90 days’ custody. When I tried to consult someone I knew from CBI over the phone, they became furious and started scolding me. Hence, I did not reach out to anyone,” she shared in her complaint.

On the following day (May 7), the scammers allegedly made Chaudhary transfer ₹45 lakh into their account. “After I did this, they began asking me for ₹50 lakh more. But I did not have that. I became suspicious and called the cyber helpline number 1930 and disconnected the Skype call,” said Chaudhary.

“An FIR has been registered on the basis of the woman’s complaint. The matter is being investigated,” said Vinod Yadav, the station house officer, cyber crime police station.