Man posing as cop extracts Rs 1 lakh from professor with false claim of her son's detention

A 58-year-old college professor from Mumbai was duped of Rs 1 lakh by a man posing as a police inspector who claimed her son had been detained in a case, an official has said.

The incident took place on Tuesday when the professor was in college in the city’s Juhu area, the official said.

“During lunch break, she received a call from an unidentified number. The caller identified himself as police inspector Vijay Kumar and said her son had been detained in a case. The woman tried reaching her son on his phone but could not,” the official said on Friday.

“To bail out her son, she transferred Rs 1 lakh into the accounts provided by the fraudsters. After some time, the fraudster called the professor and threatened her with dire consequences if she narrated this incident to anybody. After realising the detention information was false, she approached Juhu police station,” the official added.

A case was registered under Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act provisions against unidentified persons, he said.