During the investigation, EOW has so far frozen 17 bank accounts involved in this fraud. Further steps are being taken to identify the real mastermind of this scam and the fraudsters based in Dubai.
[Representational image:iStock]
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Odisha Police busted a cyber-financial fraud racket based in Dubai duping crores of rupees from people through fake courier services and blackmailing victims in the name of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The cyber-financial fraud was busted following a complaint lodged by Ratna Tripathy of Nayapalli area Bhubaneswar. According to the complaint, she received a phone call on 19 June where the caller introduced himself as an employee of FedEx, Hyderabad. He told her that a parcel containing six Passports, one Laptop, five ATM Cards, and 150 grams of Narcotics drugs sent to her has been intercepted by NCB Mumbai officials, said the State’s economic investigating agency.
Investigation later found that fraud is being perpetrated by using the name of courier companies and faking as NCB, CBI, ED, Police officer etc. Hundreds of people, across the country, are being extorted for huge amounts of money.
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As the scammers use the name of a real NCB, CBI, ED and IPS officer, gullible people tend to believe them as genuine. However they don’t show their face in the video chat. They use fake identity cards/ certificates etc. which further emboldens the belief that they are genuine.
It was found that the amount deposited by the victim landed in a mule account of one Jagdamba Enterprises in Punjab. It was also found that scammers, in just 2-3 days, had extorted Rs 5.58 crores from several victims across the country using this single account.
However this money was further transferred to different mule accounts and ultimately a major chunk of this amount was withdrawn through an ATM in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
During the investigation, EOW has so far frozen 17 bank accounts involved in this fraud. Further steps are being taken to identify the real mastermind of this scam and the fraudsters based in Dubai.
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