Kerala: Cyber fraudster posing as Mumbai cop gets shock of his life as he dials cyber cell SI

THRISSUR: The cyber wing of Thrissur police has launched an investigation to locate a scammer who accidentally called them over phone posing as a police officer from Mumbai. The fraudster called up about a fortnight ago saying that the receiver had carried out a major cybercrime, and his Aadhaar card was cited in the cybercrime website ‘dark net’.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCOy8S5CODi/?igsh=MWRob3d4eHh4a3Z2cg== https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCOy8S5CODi/?igsh=MWRob3d4eHh4a3Z2cg==

The scammer warned the receiver was under virtual arrest. Without revealing his identity, Thrissur city cyber cell sub-inspector Feesto T D, who received the call, enticed the scammer to continue the conversation with a view to trap him. The scammer directed the SI to install the Zoom app but the SI avoided the scammer seeing his face by claiming that his camera was not working. On the other side, Feesto recorded the video of the caller, who was in police uniform. The climax of the story was when the caller asked the SI what he was doing. The officer then opened his web camera and the caller was in a state of shock when he saw Feesto in uniform.

Feesto then told the caller he had already collected several details about him and that his current location was in West Bengal. The caller then disconnected the call and went off. “We are trying to get his real identity, and this is a bit tough task considering that such fraudsters mostly call from the stolen mobile numbers of poor people. But investigation is on,” Feesto said.

“What surprises me the most is the fact that there are still people who are susceptible to such crimes, and that there are people who still chose to resort to such crimes. Such crimes are still happening even after the launch of so many widespread awareness programmes, including the mention by Prime Minister about such frauds in his recent monthly radio programme,” the SI said.