Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 5 : The Tamil Nadu Police registered FIRs against unidentified fraudsters for allegedly siphoning off over ₹1 crore from several residents of Coimbatore through a series of cyber scams.
In the first instance, a retired government employee residing in Singanallur was cheated of ₹19 lakh. The victim received a video call on January 13 from a stranger claiming her name was linked to a 206-count scam involving the CEO of a private airline. Threatening her with a "digital arrest," the fraudsters coerced her into sharing her bank account details and passwords under the guise of verifying transactions.
After discovering the theft, she filed a complaint. Following a Community Service Register (CSR) entry, an FIR has now been formally registered, police said.
In a similar "digital arrest" scam, 80-year-old medical practitioner Dr Rangaraj from Chetty Veedhi was duped of ₹31.54 lakh. Fraudsters contacted the doctor in January, claiming his name was linked to a scam and threatening him with immediate arrest unless he complied with their financial demands.
The third case involved Vijaygopal, a 63-year-old retired private bank employee from Podanur, who lost ₹47.10 lakh to a stock market fraud. Reports indicate that Vijaygopal was added to two WhatsApp groups dedicated to online trading and instructed to download mobile applications named 'Pollen' and 'Mibafss' from the Play Store. Although his digital wallet falsely showed gains exceeding ₹1 crore, he realised the apps were fake when he attempted to withdraw the funds last year.
Similarly, a 29-year-old woman identified as Mariammal from Kovaipudhur was cheated of ₹6.89 lakh while seeking part-time employment. She was contacted via the Telegram app in December and initially paid small amounts for reviewing YouTube videos. However, she was later pressured into "investing" a larger sum, after which the fraudsters disappeared.
A final case was reported by 35-year-old Radha Bharathi from Ondipudhur. A former IT professional, Radha was also targeted through Telegram while searching for part-time work. Similar to the previous case, she was lured into a "YouTube review" task and subsequently convinced to invest ₹10.52 lakh, which she eventually lost to the scammers.
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