In a distressing case of cyber fraud, an 80-year-old bookstore owner in Delhi’s Connaught Place was cheated of over ₹15 lakh by a fraudster posing as an official of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), police reported on Friday.
The incident occurred on June 16, when the elderly victim received a WhatsApp call from an individual falsely claiming to be an NDMC representative. The caller alleged that the electricity bill for the shop had been unpaid for an extended period and warned that the power supply would be disconnected within 30 minutes unless the dues were cleared immediately.
In a panic, the victim was coerced into clicking on a suspicious payment link supposedly for an invoice of ₹12. Trusting the caller, he entered his credit card details as instructed. However, shortly afterward, multiple unauthorized transactions were made from his account, totaling around ₹15.45 lakh.
Realizing he had been scammed, the victim contacted his bank to block the credit card and freeze his account, but substantial financial damage had already been done.
The Connaught Place police station registered a case on June 17, and an investigation is underway to trace the culprits.
In a separate cybercrime case on the same day, Delhi Police busted a cyber-extortion racket involving obscene video calls. Two accused, including the mastermind, were arrested after a complaint by Ankit Kumar Kain, a Shahdara resident.
Kain reported that he had connected with a woman named Nandini on the dating app QuakQuak. After shifting their conversation to WhatsApp, the woman initiated a nude video call while secretly recording him. She later blackmailed Kain, threatening to release the video unless he transferred money. Under pressure, Kain sent ₹35,000 to a Bandhan Bank account.
When demands increased, Kain filed a complaint on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP). Police traced the money to an account in the name of Mangal Singh, operated fraudulently by Shyam Singh from Rajasthan. Shyam had opened the account using Mangal’s details without his knowledge. The registered SIM card and ATM card were handed to another accused, Aamir, who is currently absconding.
Police recovered four mobile phones used in the crime from Shyam Singh. Further efforts are on to apprehend Aamir and dismantle the remaining network.