Vadodara: “Aren’t you sending the cops? We are still free. Policemen from your state haven’t arrested us yet?” For over a fortnight, Lavanya Banerjee, a startup co-founder from Ahmedabad, has been incessantly receiving such calls from a gang of cybercrinminals who allegedly scammed her mother of Rs 14,000 last month. Most scammers disappear without a trace after cheating their victims, but this gang has been taunting and challenging Banerjee over the phone to have them arrested if she can.
“I had never imagined this scenario. The fraudsters have gone to extreme lengths to harass me. They seem to be getting a thrill out of it.
They call me at least a dozen times every day to mockingly tell me that the law hasn’t been able to catch up with them,” Banerjee, an Ahmedabad resident, told TOI. The barrage of calls started after Banerjee threatened to have them arrested. “A day after cheating my mother online in the last week of July, they called again hoping to siphon more money.
I received the call and told them to return my money. I told them that I would file a police complaint and that Gujarat police would track them down,” Banerjee said. She then filed a complaint at the Shahibaug police station.
“I blocked the numbers from which I got the phone calls, but they kept calling from different mobile numbers. I was amazed at their confidence. ‘Hamko arrest kar ke dikhaao.
Ab tak koi nahi aaya hamey pakadne,’ (Get us arrested if you can. No one has come to nab.