85-year-old Mumbai man loses ₹9 crore to ‘digital arrest’ scam
85-year-old Mumbai man loses ₹9 crore to ‘digital arrest’ scam
An 85-year-old Mumbai resident was duped of ₹9 crore in a fake police digital arrest scam, with forged documents and a staged arrest video.
An 85-year-old retired professor in Mumbai fell prey to a sophisticated cyber scam that used a 'digital arrest' ruse to drain his savings. The sequence began on November 28 when the victim received a phone call posing as an inspector from Panchvati Police Station in Nashik. The caller claimed the victim’s Aadhaar number had been misused to open a bank account involved in money laundering and linked to the banned organisation Popular Front of India. He warned that a criminal case was being registered and said a special team from the 'CBI crime branch' was handling the matter.
On December 1, the fraudsters escalated the ruse with a WhatsApp video call showing a person in police uniform. The caller asserted that an arrest warrant had been issued and that the victim had been placed under 'digital arrest'. He was told to share full details of his bank accounts and investments, and to keep the matter confidential. The impostors also assured him that the money would be returned with interest after verification.
Under fear of arrest, the victim transferred funds from fixed deposits, mutual funds and share investments to several bank accounts. The total amount moved is reported to be around ₹9 crore. The case came to light on December 22 when the scammers demanded an additional transfer of ₹3 crore and the victim approached the South Region Cyber Police Station with a complaint. Police later said forged documents bearing the names of the Supreme Court of India and the Reserve Bank of India were used in the scheme, and a probe led to the arrest of a 27-year-old company director in connection with the scam. The money from the victim’s accounts was traced to the company’s accounts, with links to other senior-citizen fraud cases.
