Mumbai: Cyber fraudsters are coming up with unthinkable plots to fleece their targets. The following case is an instance of the new evil design in the arsenal of digital outlaws. A con duped a Ghatkopar-based man of ₹1.24 lakh by putting him under mental duress, saying that his son was arrested for rape and demanding money to quash the 'case'. The harried man even borrowed money from his employer to pay the fraudster.
The matter surfaced on Sunday evening when Dinesh Rajouria, 55, approached the Pant Nagar police. In his complaint, he said that he works as a chef at the Sheth Virchand Dhanji Devshi School, Ghatkopar. On Sunday at around 12.30pm, he received a call from an unknown number. The caller said, “Your son has raped a girl and police have arrested him. If you want your son out of jail, you will have to pay me.”
Fraudster threatens Rajouria
Hearing this, Rajouria was in utter shock. In his statement to the police, he said that he wanted to call his house and ask what was happening, but the caller threatened him. The con demanded ₹4 lakh to get Rajouria’s son 'out of jail'. The con then sent a couple of Google Pay QR codes, asked the aggrieved to send the money through them.
A tensed Rajouria borrowed ₹50,000 from his employer, while asking his daughter and elder son to send some money, without explaining the matter. He managed to collect ₹1.24 lakh and transferred it to the con. Upon reaching home, Rajouria narrated the entire episode to his daughter, who immediately called her brother home. The father got an uneasy relieve when his baffled son vehemently denied his involvement in a rape case.
“There were neither a rape offence nor the police had arrested him. It was a bogus call, a new technique used to extort money by making people vulnerable and helpless,” said a police officer, adding that the numbers used by the fraudsters are under scrutiny. Meanwhile, Rajouria has also submitted the screenshots of the chat and his bank statement, reflecting payments to the con, to the police.
