Indians lose $2,300 to cyber criminals every minute

Syndicates developing elaborate schemes that police are struggling to pin down

- Rohini Mohan India Correspondent

BENGALURU - It was a tense day in late August for 82-year-old S.P. Oswal as he logged in to Skype to attend an online trial at the Supreme Court of India.

He heard Chief Justice D.Y.Chandrachud bang the gavel twice and say: "Order, order, please present your case." textile After the judge delivered a verdict on the alleged money laundering case, the chairman of Vardhman Group, one of India's largest manufacturers, transferred 70 million rupees (S$1.09 million) into "a secret supervision account" to avoid arrest.

The next day, when Mr Oswal confided in a colleague about what had happened, he realised that he had been scammed.

The scheme involved a fabricated money laundering case with forged documents by a fake Central Bureau of Investigation; uniformed officials who took Mr Oswal into "digital custody", where he was kept under "digital surveillance" for two days via Skype; threats not to speak to anyone; a fake courtroom; a staged trial with someone impersonating the Chief Justice of India; and a secret bank account.

This was perhaps the boldest and most elaborate cyberfraud in India to date.

"My ordeal is nothing short of a movie script," the textile tycoon told reporters in Delhi.

Fortunately, he went to the police quickly and was able to recover about 52.5 million rupees, but the rest had been withdrawn from bank accounts across Assam, West Bengal and Delhi.

Indians lose 150,000 rupees (S$2,300) to cyber criminals every minute, and only 20 per cent of the money lost is recovered, as crossborder and interstate syndicates develop increasingly elaborate methods that the police are finding harder to pin down.

Cybercrime ranks among the most prolific organised crimes worldwide. By 2025, it is projected to cause losses of US$10.5 trillion (S$13.7 trillion).