Thane crime: Air hostess loses Rs 10 lakh to cyber fraudsters

An official on Saturday said that a 24yearold air hostess from the Thane district of Maharashtra fell prey to cyber fraud wherein she was forced to transfer around Rs 10 lakh to avoid arrest for laundering money reported news agency PTIThe air hostess who lives in Kalyan received calls from unidentified phone numbers on November 23 2024 who told her that a parcel sent by her had not reached its destination in IranWhen the victim informed the caller that she had not dispatched any parcel the caller told her on a video call that her name had figured in a money laundering case and threatened arrest a police official said while sharing an update on the Thane crime reported PTIThe caller then sent certain links on her mobile number and forced her to transfer Rs 993 lakh before hanging up the police official said while sharing an update on the Thane crime reported PTIThe woman realised that she had been cheated and approached the policeThe police official said the phone number location showed overseas An FIR has been registered under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita and the Information Technology ActNo arrest has been made so farCyber fraud called pig butchering scam targeting unemployed youths housewives students MHA reportA new cyber fraud known as the pig butchering scam or investment scam has emerged targeting unemployed youths housewives students and needy people who are made to lose large sums of money daily according to the latest annual report of the Union home ministry reported PTIThe report said that cybercriminals have also been using Google services platforms to initiate these crimesGoogle Advertisement platform provides a convenient facility for targeted advertisement from across the border This scam known as Pig Butchering Scam or Investment Scam is a global phenomenon and involves largescale money laundering and even cyber slavery it said reported PTIThe pig butchering scam which is believed to have started in China in 2016 targets gullible individuals with whom cyber criminals build trust over time ultimately convincing them to invest in cryptocurrency or some other lucrative scheme when their money is stolen The analogy to pig butchering comes from the fattening of swine before their slaughter reported PTITo curb the menace the home ministrys Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre I4C has partnered with Google to share the threat intelligence for urgent action periodicallyThe cybercriminals are using sponsored Facebook to launch illegal lending applications in India the report saidSuch links are proactively identified and shared with Facebook along with Facebook pages for necessary action it saidWhatsApp remains the biggest social media platform that is possibly misused by cyber criminals in India the report saidThe data published in the report on cybercrime complaints where Big Tech platforms have been misused shows that 14746 complaints were related to WhatsApp 7651 against Telegram 7152 against Instagram 7051 against Facebook and 1135 against YouTube till March 2024With inputs from PTI