The Crime Investigation Department on Monday issued a cautionary advise to the public against the alarming increase in Nigerian frauds/foreign funds transfer cases.
The CID has asked the general public not to respond in any manner to such fraudulent offers from abroad in the name of lottery or other forms. Public should immediately delete such mails/SMSs and register a complaint with the local police/Cyber Crime authorities, Additional DG (CID) SV Ramana Murthy said in a press release.
Murthy said that participation in such events would be a violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and Regulation of Anti Money Laundering (AML) Act, 1999.
The CID chief said that the Reserve Bank has also given a Press Release stating that it does not undertake any type of money arrangement and it does not take any responsibility for recovering moneys/remitted towards such bogus communications. For any further clarification in the matter, people have been asked to contact Cyber Crime Cell, through mobile 9440627672 or by sending mail to cybercrimeps@cidap.gov.in.
The fraudsters send attractive offers to gullible public through e-mails, mobile phones, SMSs, etc., to lend credence to such offers, the communication is sent on the letterheads/websites that appear to resemble officers of some public authorities like the RBI, and are apparently signed by Top Executives/Senior Officials of such authorities.
The standard modus-operandi followed in such crimes is that the victims are asked to deposit small sums of money towards processing fees/transaction fees/tax clearance charges/conversion charges, clearing fees, etc., in certain accounts in banks. The fraudsters often have multiple accounts in the name of individuals or proprietary concerns in different bank branches for collecting such charges, the CID said.
Often gullible genuine account holders are persuaded by the fraudsters to lend their account details for such fraudulent activities on the promise of receiving commissions. Once the initial amount is deposited, demands for more money follow with more official sounding reasons. The fraudsters withdraw through ATMs or transfer the money abroad and vanish leaving the victims in a lurch. Many residents have already become victims and have lost huge sums of money by falling for such fictitious offers. It is also advised that public should never share their e-mail passwords or bank account details generally asked for by fraudsters.
Recently CID, AP, arrested some fraudsters, who are mostly foreigners and residing in New Delhi.
To avoid such cases, the CID has requested the people not to respond to such communication and instead, just delete such communications. (INN)