The cyber fraudsters are continue to look for different ideas to dupe people using COVID-19 as a reason, wherein recently a 22-year-old drama school student in Powai was duped by a cyber fraudster who impersonated his brother-in-law. When the victim grew suspicious about the caller, as he did not sound like his brother-in-law, the fraudster claimed that he contracted the COVID-19 infection which changed his voice.
The incident took place on January 2 when the student received a call from an unknown person who identified himself as his brother-in-law. When the victim told him that he did not sound like the relative, the caller replied that he has contracted the deadly virus as a reason he sounding low. To support his climes the caller also took names of other family members, said the complainant in his statement to the police.
The fraudster further claimed that his client was expected to transfer ₹45,000 but couldn't due to some issue with his account and asked the victim to send money instead. He asked the victim about his bank balance and asked him to share the entire sum of ₹44,000 remaining in his account.
The caller also claimed the he has shared the victim's bank account number with his client who will share the money in some time. By night when the victim failed to receive any money he contacted his brother-in-law in Delhi and found out that he never asked for any wire transfers.
According to the police, the victim, a native of Delhi had been staying in Powai as paying guest since over a month and the money he lost to the fraud was to take care of expenses in Mumbai.
On the basis of complaint, the Powai police registered an offence of cheating and impersonation along with relevant sections of the Information Technology act. The police have sought call data record of the caller and also wrote to the bank seeking account details in which the money had been transferred, said police.
