Amaravati: Incidents of cyber thugs duping people of crores of rupees by threatening over the phone have come to light in Andhra Pradesh. They are calling people in the name of the Enforcement Directorate or police to avoid suspicion. The police are even plagued with callers impersonating DSPs.
A private doctor in the Rayachoti area under the Annamayya district was duped of Rs 2 crore. According to the police, the doctor, Imtiaz, at Amin Hospital in the town, received a call from a number with a photo of a police officer five months ago. He was shown a photo of a fake police station to make it sound real. The caller said a case was registered for a drug parcel from London in the doctor's name. He was threatened with arrest. Imtiaz got worried over this and asked what should be done to get out of the case. The caller then asked him to pay Rs 2 core which was sent by the doctor in 25 tranches.
Another bank employee also fell prey to cyber crooks when he was duped of Rs 25 lakhs. In a similar modus operandi, he was promised higher investments in online trading. According to the Penamalur police of Krishna district, Venkateswara Rao of Poranki works with SBI. He was asked by an unknown person to open an account through a link and invest Rs 49 lakhs for a higher return. A convinced Rao immediately opened the account and sent the amount to several accounts mentioned by the crook. After a few days, he was shown an accrued amount of Rs 2.82 crore in the account as profit. An overjoyed Rao tried to encash the same, but to his utter dismay, it was getting cancelled. When he reached out to the crook again seeking favour in encashment, he was asked to pay another Rs 28.26 lakh as tax which made him finally realise something was fishy. He lodged a case with the Penamalur police who are investigating the matter.
A lawyer from Anakapalli was threatened by cyber crooks demanding Rs 29 lakh. Anakapalli town CI Vijaykumar said the lawyer, Bhavani Prasad was residing in Gandhinagar when he received a call from 'the ED' on October 3. He was told that a money laundering case was registered against him for holding assets beyond his income. He was threatened with the arrest of her daughter as per the Supreme Court order. A petrified Prasad asked the cyber thug for the options to evade arrest when he was told to pay money. He paid Rs 29 lakhs in three instalments on October 3, 4 and 5.
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