Three persons digitally arrested, robbed of over ₹1.8 crore in separate cases

Three persons, including two senior citizens, were kept under digital arrest by cyber frauds who, posing as officials of the Mumbai police, threatened them with drug smuggling and money laundering cases before robbing a total of over ₹1.8 crore from them .

The incidents have been reported in South and Southeast Division Cyber Crime Police Station limits between Monday and Thursday.

The first case was reported by a 70-year-old woman residing in Padmanabha Nagar. According to her complaint, she got a call from a person claiming to be from an international courier agency informing that there was a parcel in her name with banned items and hence the case has been referred to the CBI.

A few minutes later, she got a call from another number and the person claiming to be from CBI said that her personal information has been misused for drug smuggling and money laundering.

Assuring to help her out, the accused accessed her bank accounts on the pretext of verification and transferred all the savings from her account amounting to ₹89 lakh.

Similarly, a 48-year-old private firm employee from HSR Layout complained to the Southeast Division Cyber Crime Police that fraudsters posing as the Mumbai police stated that there was a parcel containing 200 g of MDMA and four passports destined to Thailand from Mumbai from his name .

He further said that the accused kept him under digital arrest for four days between August 14 and 18, accessed his bank accounts and demanded that 98% of the savings should be transferred to them for verification, which will be reverted after investigations.

He followed the instructions and transferred a total of ₹10,01,253 and waited for two days to get back the money before realising that he had been duped. Based on the complaint filed on Tuesday, the police are now trying to track down the accused through money transactions.

In the third case too, the accused cheated a 93-year-old, from J.P. Nagar on Monday. Claiming to be from Mumbai crime branch, the accused threatened to arrest him under a money laundering case and demanded bank details for verification.

He shared all the personal details with the accused following which accused transferred ₹37 lakh, ₹13 lakh and ₹34 lakh from three different bank accounts which was his life savings amount. They assured to return it after verification and escaped .

The police reiterated that there is no provision by any enforcement agency for “digital arrest” and people should not be scared of such calls. The police further advised the people not to entertain such calls and report to the 1930 or 112 to avoid harassment.