In an unheard of incident, Chairman of the Vardhman Group, SP Oswal was duped of nearly Rs 7 crores in a cyber scam with a fake Supreme Court hearing and a forged "written and stamped" order from the top court. The textile baron had filed a complaint with Punjab police for being scammed by persons who orchestrated a fake Supreme Court hearing presided by a person impersonating Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.
The scammers allegedly made a Skype call regarding the court hearing and told the top industrialist that a Supreme Court order has directed him to release all his funds into a "secret supervision account," Reuters reported.
The police are investigating the alleged scam that swindled nearly Rs 7 crores ($830,000) from the business tycoon by summoning him to a fake online hearing before the Supreme Court. The scammers impersonating CJI DY Chandrachud threatened him with jail, following which he transferred the funds.
According to the Police they had recovered $600,000 from the accused, saying it was considered to be India's largest recovery so far in such cases, the report said.
Reportedly the Vardhman Group chairman was threatened with a digital arrest. There have been several cases of scammers threatening the public with digital arrest but, the case of using a fake Supreme Court court hearing is the first such reported incident.
Several reports have surfaced in recent times about scammers blackmailing people into making payments for violations of the law that they never committed through video calls.
The businessman has told a newspaper that though he could not see the scammer's face, they introduced him as CJI Chandrachud.
"During the fake Supreme Court hearing via Skype, they introduced the fake judge as Justice Chandrachud, though I could not see his face. But I could hear him talking and banging a hammer on the table. The written SC order was so perfect and stamped that I believed it to be genuine and transferred the amount,” Oswal told the Indian Express.