Mumbai: Cyber fraudster cheats senior citizen of Rs 10 lakh by posing as his US-based friend

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The Mumbai police have arrested a 43-year-old cyber fraudster for allegedly cheating a senior citizen of Rs 10 lakh by posing as his friend, who stays in the US, an official said on Wednesday. The Cyber Crime Branch cracked the more than two months old fraud case and arrested the accused, Samrat Surendrakumar Choudhary, on Tuesday evening, he said.

The incident came to light on July 5, when the senior citizen approached the Central Region Cyber Police Station with a cheating complaint, the police officer said. The 63-year-old man, who works with an NGO, had received a WhatsApp message from a mobile number which had an image of his US-based friend as display picture (DP), he said.

After chatting for a few minutes, the person who sent the message sought Rs 10 lakh from the victim with a promise to return the money within 24 hours and also provided him bank account details, the official said. The elderly man, thinking he was helping his friend, transferred Rs 10 lakh immediately to the bank account, he said. The next day, the victim called his US-based friend and asked him about the money when he realised he had been cheated, the official said.

Acting on his complaint, a team led by Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Gowilkar started technical analysis of the fraudster's mobile number and went through details of the bank account in which the money was transferred. The team tracked the location of the accused and arrested him from Kandivli, Gowilkar said. The police have got Rs 8.13 lakh, out of Rs 10 lakh deposited by the victim, frozen in the bank account, the official added.

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