Mumbai: A 49-year-old businessman from Palghar lost Rs 34.47 lakh to fake cops who duped him on the pretext of a money laundering case. The fraudsters even shared purported documents of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Lucknow crime branch and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with the complainant.
According to the police, a person claiming to be an official from the telecom department in Delhi called the businessman on May 27. The caller informed that his Aadhaar card and SIM had been misused in Uttar Pradesh for illegal purposes and that Lucknow police would contact him shortly.
Posing as an inspector, the con spoke to the complainant and told him an unaccounted amount of Rs 70 lakh has been parked in three accounts opened using his Aadhaar card and contact details. Subsequently, the man received another call from the 'deputy commissioner of police, Lucknow', who said that the dirty cash needs to be scrutinised by the Reserve Bank of India. Hence, he would have to transfer the money from his account to other accounts, said the fake cop.
After seeing the forged documents of the probe agencies, the complainant fell for the fraud and transferred more than Rs 30 lakh to the cheaters between May 28 and 30. He finally realised the scam, after they demanded more money. When he sought identity cards, the imposters went incommunicado.
