58-year-old duped of ₹1 lakh in ‘digital arrest’ fraud
A 58-year-old woman in Vile Parle lost ₹1 lakh to cyber fraudsters posing as police, claiming her Aadhaar-linked number was involved in criminal cases.
MUMBAI: A 58-year-old Vile Parle resident lost ₹1 lakh to Cyber frauds who posed as investigating officers and placed her under “digital arrest” for around 24 hours, claiming that there were 17 cases registered in connection with her Aadhaar-linked mobile number and most of those cases were abetment of suicide.
The Vile Parle police station has registered a case against unknown persons and are investigating the case with the help of the cyber police station.
The complainant is a homemaker and lives in Vile Parle with her husband and son. Her son runs a salon in Vile Parle while her husband works in a private firm. According to the police, she received a call from an unknown person who told her that her number was linked to her Aadhaar card and there were 17 harassment cases registered on that number. The most recent case was registered a few days ago after a girl died by suicide due to harassment, said a police officer.
The officer said the caller then threatened her that the girl who died by suicide was from a rich family and she was receiving harassing messages from her Aadhar-linked number. She got another at around 4:24pm and the caller identified as a senior inspector from Delhi Crime Branch and informed her that 17 cases were registered against her.
Five minutes later, she got a video call from another number. The caller spoke politely saying don’t panic just follow the protocol, and not to contact anyone for 24 hours and not to use her social media. The caller instructed her to continue the video call for 24 hours and if she was forced to disconnect the call for some reason, send a WhatsApp message to them saying everything is fine every hour.
The woman followed the instructions. The next morning around 9:20 the caller said his vehicle is parked near Gawde Hospital and if she didn’t follow the protocol, then the entire family will be arrested, said a police officer.
The caller told her that he could help her if she paid the necessary deposits pending investigation. He promised that the deposits would be refunded to her after the investigation was complete. Following the instructions, the complainant transferred ₹1 lakh in three instalments to the fraudsters.
She said that she did not have any more money and therefore could not meet further demands of the frauds. The caller then asked her to provide her daughter’s number. As soon as the daughter caller spoke to her daughter, she realized that it was a fraud call. She came home and checked her mother’s phone and was saw that her mother was duped, added the official.
They then contacted helpline number 1930 and registered a case in the Vile Parle police station.