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Showing posts with label Money Scam. Show all posts
Money Scam
Cyber Crime Cyber Extortion Cyberfraud Digital Arrest Money Scam

Digital Arrest Scam: Woman Doctor Duped for 40 Lakhs, Loses Her Entire Savings

Digital Arrest Scam

In today’s digital world, our lives are interconnected through the internet. From shopping on the web and managing finances to connecting with our loved ones, everything is done online these days. 

But the comfort also comes with some risks. 

Professor scammed with Rs 40 Lakhs 

In a recent online scam, a government medical university professor fell victim to a “digital arrest” scam and was tricked into paying a heavy amount of Rs 40 lakhs. The scam technique is called “digital arrest” where a scammer fools the victim under the disguise of law enforcement agencies. 

“An arrest warrant has been issued in your name. All your financial accounts will be frozen and they will be investigated. Till then you are put under ‘digital arrest’. After that they called me on Skype and showed me many documents which included my phone number, Aadhaar number, and which also included my arrest warrant,” she said.

The Attack: What happened?

On March 11, the professor received a call purportedly from Maharashtra. The caller alleged that a phone number issued under her ID in July 2023 was involved in illegal activities, including text message scams, phishing, and money laundering.

The call was then transferred to another individual claiming to be from the Maharashtra police headquarters. This person accused her of opening a fraudulent account in Canara Bank, Mumbai, leading to money laundering activities. The caller even spoke about an arrest warrant issued in her name.

The scammer threatened her, stating that all her financial cards, PAN, and Aadhaar had been blocked. They claimed she was under ‘digital arrest’.

To add to her distress, the scammers showed her documents via Skype, including her phone number, Aadhaar number, and the alleged arrest warrant.

The professor was coerced into transferring a staggering amount of Rs 31.31 lakh on March 11, followed by Rs 9 lakh from another account the next day.

The scammers instructed her to maintain constant communication, provide personal information, and refrain from contacting anyone else, citing national security concerns and the purported involvement of police and bank officials in the scam.

Realizing she had fallen victim to cyber fraud, she promptly reported the incident to the cybercrime police station and filed a formal complaint.

Impact of the attack

According to police, “A staggering amount of Rs 31.31 lakh was transferred by her on March 11, followed by Rs 9 lakh from another account the next day.” 

The stolen money was the professor’s entire savings, which she had kept for her kids’ studies and her future.

Triveni Singh, a former SP in the Cyber Cell and a cyber expert said that no reputable agency will request a Skype chat for reasons of investigation or arrest. There's nothing like a 'digital arrest'.


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Money Scam
Crypto Currency Cyber Crime Money Laundering Money Scam

How Threat Actors Are Changing Money Laundering Campaigns


Change in the money-laundering game

It is next to impossible to locate the exact amount of money that's been laundered globally, conservative estimates suggest anywhere between $800 million to $2 trillion. This is just the tip of the iceberg. It's a crime that fuels some of the world's most dangerous criminal operations. 

It's also a tactic threat actors use to cover up their tracks and the profits they make from campaigns like large-scale ransomware attacks. The increase of cryptocurrency has also allowed cybercriminals to avoid getting caught. 

Financial enterprises, cryptocurrency companies, and other institutions have to pay fines for not being able to root out money laundering as regulators and government agencies worldwide try to crack down on this major challenge. 

The bad news is that as we move toward 2023, automation is going to make the situation only worse. We can expect a rise in money laundering as-a-service. The good news is that there are ways to fight this problem and collectively mitigate cyber criminals' ability to operationalize. 

The Crypto money laundering case

A go-to tactic by threat actors looking to advance in ranks is using 'money mules.' Money mules are individuals that help launder money- sometimes, unknowingly. They're often baited under promises of legitimate jobs and false pretenses, only to find later that the job is to help launder profits from cybercrime. 

Traditionally, money laundering was done through anonymous wire transfer services. These transfers can be tracked easily by law enforcement agencies and regulators. Nowadays, cybercriminals have shifted to using cryptocurrency. 

A lack of regulatory supervision along with anonymous transactions, make it the ideal platform for money laundering. A Chainalysis report discovered that cybercriminals laundered $8.6 billion in cryptocurrency in 2021. It's a 30% increase since that year. 

Rise in money-laundering recruitment campaigns

Making recruitment campaigns for money mules takes a lot of time and resources. To hide their true purpose, threat actors will sometimes go to great extents and build genuine-looking websites for fake companies and also post fake job openings to make the business look authentic. 

But machine learning (ML) and automation will make the process much easier and quicker. ML can effectively target potential recruits in less time. We can also expect a few manual campaigns replaced with automatic services that will allow cybercriminals to launder money through layers of crypto exchanges- it's going to make the process fast and difficult to track. It also means that it will be hard to recover stolen money. 

Together, these tactics make 'money-laundering-as-a-service' (MLaaS), and it's going to be another weapon in the cybercrime inventory. 

Combatting new money-laundering challenge

While threat actors will look for any means possible to launch an attack and launder money easily, it doesn't mean that we have to accept the situation as it is. 

The biggest factor in fighting the MLaaS is going to include public-private collaboration on a massive scale. Companies across the globe can share threat intelligence with each other, helping to build a secure defense. 

Dark Reading says, "it must be reiterated that cyber hygiene and education must be prioritized as well. No matter the type of organization you're in or the role you're in, this is essential for everyone. Everyone can play a key role in helping keep organizations safe from bad actors. This includes things like more digital literacy — and how to recognize a too-good-to-be-true job ad for the scam it really is. And of course, there's the concept of fighting fire with fire — as bad actors adopt more automation and ML-based approaches, so, too, must defenders."




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