Mumbai: A 36-year-old woman lawyer from Andheri (East) was forced to strip on a video call and send Rs 50,000 to scammers pretending to be cyber police. The scammers first threatened to arrest her for money laundering. To avoid this, she had to check into a Powai hotel and transfer the money online.

The woman realized she had been scammed and went to the Powai police station after receiving more messages demanding money and sending her nude pictures. The Powai police said she was at a mall in Powai on Wednesday afternoon when she got a call claiming there was an FIR against her. The call falsely accused her of being involved in a case related to Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, who had been arrested by the ED and is currently out on bail.

Fake police make woman lawyer strip on video call in Mumbai’s Andheri https://t.co/OknYmX97MJ

— thaiparampil (@thaiparampil) September 14, 2024

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Mumbai Police Explained The Matter

A Mumbai police officer said the lawyer undressed in the hotel room because she was led to believe it was a standard procedure to verify a suspect’s identity. After telling her husband about the situation later in the day, she began receiving more messages and calls demanding additional money.

The officer said she ignored the calls and messages, so the scammers used her nude photos to blackmail her. They sent her pictures of herself that they had taken while she was made to undress under the false claim of checking for weapons and injury marks, which they said were identifying features of the suspect.

Woman Duped By TRAI Impersonator Into Stripping And Paying Rs 50,000

The victim received a call at the mall from someone pretending to be from TRAI, who said her SIM card was involved in a money laundering case and would be blocked. In her complaint, she said she was told she needed police clearance to prevent the SIM deactivation. She was then connected to someone pretending to be a police officer from the Andheri cyber cell, who falsely claimed that an FIR was filed against her and that she would be arrested. The fake officer told her to go to a secluded place for a confidential inquiry. Fearing trouble, she checked into a hotel in Powai. Under pressure, she undressed and transferred Rs 50,000 to a bank account.

The FIR stated that before leaving, the scammer warned the victim not to share any details about the supposed confidential inquiry. A police officer said they had requested information about the bank account from the bank’s nodal officer, where the scammers had the victim transfer the money. The bank has been asked to block the account. Meanwhile, the cyber team is investigating the details of the bank account holder.

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