Alert bank manager, quick police action foil ‘digital arrest’ scam
An 80-year-old man in Navi Mumbai was scammed out of ₹21.94 lakh by cyber fraudsters claiming he was under investigation, but a bank manager intervened.
Navi Mumbai: Placed under ‘digital arrest’ by cyber frauds on November 13, a Koparkhairane-based retired Nuclear Power Corporation of India officer paid up ₹21.94 lakh over two days to avert physical arrest before an alert bank manager sensed that something was amiss. The manager not only stalled the victim’s request of breaking his fixed deposit worth ₹12 lakh, thereby preventing further losses, he also intimated the police and convinced the victim to lodge a complaint, setting off an intra-state probe to nab the accused.
According to the police, the 80-year-old victim received a call on November 13, with the callers claiming that he was booked in a money laundering case in Hyderabad involving Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal. A transaction worth ₹2 crore was undertaken in his name and the money was later transferred to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, a terrorist outfit, the callers told the senior citizen. They alleged that he had received ₹20 lakh as commission for the transaction, said an arrest warrant had been issued in his name and placed him under ‘digital arrest’.
The frauds further told the senior citizen that his pension account had been ‘seized’ by law enforcement authorities and asked him to share details of all his savings, bank accounts deposits and fixed deposits so they could investigate his alleged role. They then asked him to transfer money to various bank accounts on the premise that it would be returned to him once his innocence was proved.
Scared and instructed to remain connected with the frauds via a WhatsApp video call, the senior citizen transferred all the money lying in his bank accounts – a total of ₹21.94 lakh – over the course of the next few hours.
“He was then instructed to foreclose his fixed deposits and transfer the amount to multiple accounts,” senior police inspector Audumber Patil of Koparkhairane police station told Hindustan Times.
On November 14, at around 4.30pm, the senior citizen and his wife visited the Koparkhairane branch of Unity Small Finance Bank, where they had some fixed deposits. The couple sought to close these fixed deposits worth ₹12 lakh and transfer the money to a Yes Bank account.
“Since the couple wanted to foreclose their FDs and transfer such a large amount, the bank staff inquired why they were doing do. But they could not provide a satisfactory reply and got agitated instead, saying they had just transferred ₹13 lakh from another bank account and were not questioned,” Laxman Dhamale, the bank manager, told HT.
The bank staff then informed Dhamale about the situation. “I sensed that something was amiss and sent them back, saying that the server was down,” said the 56-year-old Dhamale.
Since November 15 was a bank holiday on account of the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, on November 16, Dhamale visited the Yes Bank branch in Koparkhairane to seek more details about the account where the senior citizen was asked to transfer money.
“The staff at Yes Bank informed me that the account had transactions worth ₹4 crore over just two days. I realised it was a scam and ordered my staff to not credit any amount to that account,” said Dhamale.
The manager also visited the 80-year-old retired officer at his home the same day, after he refused to visit the bank to clarify things, and asked him and his wife to share their problem.
“The couple was scared and didn’t want to discuss the matter as they believed that they were surveillance and a person was stationed outside their house for the same purpose. It was after a lot of coaxing that they took me to another room and told me about their ‘digital arrest’ by a Hyderabad-based police inspector,” he said.
Since a similar incident had occurred at the bank a few months earlier, Dhamale knew that he had to intimate the police. He visited the Koparkhairane police station the same day and informed the police about the situation, including the couple’s reluctance to lodge a complaint as they feared they were under surveillance.
Police officials initiated an inquiry to trace the bank accounts where he had been asked to transfer money – a standard procedure preceding the registration of a first information report in cases of cyber fraud. The probe revealed that the bank accounts were based in Uttarakhand. The location of the mobile numbers from which the senior citizen had received calls were also traced to Uttarakhand.
The police subsequently visited the senior citizen’s residence in plain clothes to ensure they did not get scared further. “Accompanied by bank officials, we explained to him that he had been conned and urged him to file a complaint so we could apprehend the accused,” said a police officer.
On November 26, after the senior citizen lodged a complaint, the police registered a case against four unknown individuals under sections 66C of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 and sections 318(2) and (4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
“We have dispatched a team to Uttarakhand for further investigation,” said the police officer quoted earlier.