Kolkata: Kolkata Police are investigating several cases in which cyber fraudsters are pretending to be bank relationship managers and targeting the fixed deposits of retired people. The cyber cell at Lalbazar took over one such case on Tuesday.
In this case, a senior citizen was cheated of Rs 4,74,161 after a fraudster posed as a bank official and persuaded the victim to click on suspicious links. The money was illegally withdrawn from the victim’s fixed deposit account.
Police said the incident took place on Aug 7. An unknown person called the complainant and claimed to be from a commercial bank. The caller convinced the victim to click on a malicious link. Soon after, more than Rs 4.7 lakh was deducted from the fixed deposit without the victim’s permission.
Investigators said the fraudsters used fake documents to make the scam look genuine. They created forged papers carrying the bank’s name and logo and used one of them as the display picture on their WhatsApp account. This helped them appear trustworthy and trick the victim.
The complainant lodged a formal complaint on Aug 8. Police then registered a case against the unknown users of the mobile number used in the fraud.
According to police, the accused illegally collected banking credentials, tampered with digital records, created fake bank documents, and used them to impersonate bank officials and cheat the victim.
The case has been registered under Sections 66, 66C and 66D, read with Section 43 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. These sections deal with computer-related crimes, identity theft and cheating through computer resources.
Police have also added charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, including criminal conspiracy, cheating, impersonation, forgery, using forged documents as genuine, forgery for cheating, and possession of forged documents.
The cyber cell is working with cybercrime experts to track call records, money transfers and digital clues linked to the suspect mobile number. The investigation is continuing to identify the gang behind the fraud and recover the stolen money.