Textile magnate and Chairman of the Vardhman Group, S.P. Oswal, has lodged a complaint after falling victim to cyber criminals who orchestrated a fraudulent Supreme Court hearing, impersonating Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud.
According to a report by Reuters, the scammers deceived Oswal out of ₹7 crore by convincing him to attend a fake court proceeding related to an alleged money laundering case, where he was ‘instructed’ to deposit funds into a specified account.
Oswal informed the Punjab Police that during a Skype call concerning the court hearing, he was told, “As per a Supreme Court order, I was directed to transfer all my funds into a secret supervision account.”
The report also noted that the police successfully recovered the stolen amount from the culprits on September 30.
Oswal recounted his experience to the Indian Express, stating, “During the fake Supreme Court hearing via Skype, they introduced the impersonated judge as Justice Chandrachud. Although I could not see his face, I could hear him speaking and banging a gavel on the table. The written Supreme Court order was so perfectly crafted and stamped that I believed it was genuine and transferred the funds.”
According to case documents, Oswal became a target of the ‘digital arrest’ scam, a growing trend in the country where fraudsters and extortionists deceive victims through WhatsApp and Skype video calls by posing as judges and police officials.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), operating under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has blocked approximately 1,000 Skype IDs associated with such scams to combat this issue.
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