67-yr-old loses ₹1.58 cr to digital arrest fraud

A 67-year-old woman in Mumbai was scammed of ₹1.58 crore by fraudsters posing as police and CBI officers, claiming she was under 'digital arrest'.

Vinay Dalvi

67-yr-old loses ₹1.58 cr to digital arrest fraud

vinay.dalvi@hindustantimes.com

MUMBAI: In yet another case of ‘digital arrest’ in the city, a 67-year-old woman from Santacruz was cheated of ₹1.58 crore by unknown cyber frauds who posed as courier company executives, CBI officers, and Mumbai Police officers. The fraudsters placed her under ‘digital arrest’ for six days using the name of city DCP Manish Kalwaniya, whose office is in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC).

The Cyber Police have registered a case against unknown frauds following a complaint lodged by the 67-year-old resident of Vakola, Santacruz. The police said the woman got a call on 26 November from an unknown number. The caller identified himself as a representative of a courier company and informed her that a parcel she had couriered to Taiwan contained drugs and had, therefore, been referred to law enforcement agencies.

The woman denied having sent any parcel to Taiwan but was asked to get in touch with the CBI and lodge a case, by the fraudsters. The fake courier company staff promised to help her get connected with the CBI and soon, she received a WhatsApp call from a man claiming to be a CBI officer. He told her that money-laundering and drugs transportation cases had been initiated against her.

When the woman denied the allegations, the fake CBI officer told her that he was placing her under ‘digital arrest’. “He instructed her not to speak to anyone about the ongoing inquiry and threatened her with physical arrest,” said the police officer.

From November 26 to December 2, the fake CBI officer kept telling her that they would record her statement and instructed her to keep her phone switched on continuously. To gain her confidence, the caller had kept the Mumbai Police logo as profile picture on his WhatsApp number.

“The fake officer used to drop names of senior police officers to get financial details like fixed deposits, investment in shares, and bank statements out of her. He then asked her to transfer all the money to a purported account of the Reserve Bank of India and assuaged her that her money will be returned after the inquiry,” said the police officer.

He further said that she was even sent a fake letter on the letter pad of Mumbai Police mentioning the amount of ₹1.58 crore that she had transferred to the account number given by them. When she asked them about getting her money back, they asked her to meet DCP Kalwaniya at his office in BKC.

After waiting for a few days, she visited Kalwaniya’s office at BKC only to realise that she has been scammed. The DCP advised her to register a complaint immediately on the NCCR portal and 1930 – the cyber helpline number.

Accordingly, an FIR was registered under sections 204 (personating a public servant), 308 (extortion), 318 (cheating), 319 (cheating by personation), 336 (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc.) and 340 (forged document or electronic record and using it as genuine) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant sections of the Information Technology (IT) Act.