Pune: The Pune cyber police have come across at least four incidents over the last two months in which cybercrooks , impersonating senior officers of state or central probe agencies, have not only cheated their victims but have also made their ' digital arrests ' by asking them to remain on their video cameras from 12 hours to three days. "This is very strange. The victims have followed instructions to the T and some even took permission of these crooks to visit washrooms," deputy commissioner of police (cyber) Vikrant Deshmukh said.
The Pune police observed this trend mostly in parcel fraud cases where the suspects make random calls and threaten victims under the guise of being ‘police officers from Mumbai crime branch, CBI, CID, or Uttar Pradesh police’. They make fake arrest warrants or summons of fake cases, especially of money laundering, and send these fake documents to the victim on their messaging applications. They ordered the victims to sit in front of their laptops or cellphones with their cameras on.
"The victims remain under tremendous stress, and the suspects keep threatening them by posing as policemen. In some cases, it has been observed they have made a studio set up where they show a police station on the video calls to their victims using the facility of a video call making application while threatening to arrest them," Deshmukh said. Scared victims often agree to settle the case offering to pay some money, he added.
“Fraudsters share one or two bank .