‘Aadhaar number’, ‘money laundering’: Hyderabad techie escapes digital arrest after 24 hours

The man managed to inform police in the nick of time.

Amid a rise in cases of ‘digital arrest’, a 44-year-old techie from Hyderabad went through a digital arrest that continued for 24 hours before he was able to contact the police, according to a report.

Initially, the IT professional ignored certain text messages as spam (Representational Image)

The man's ordeal began at 3 am on Saturday and continued till 4 am on Sunday, The Times of India reported.

The case

On Friday night, the IT professional received certain text messages that he ignored as spam. However, on Saturday, the fraudsters called him, posed as ‘FedEx courier agents’ and ‘Mumbai Police,’ and claimed his Aadhaar number was linked to a ‘money laundering case.’

As the techie panicked, the criminals forced him to start a WhatsApp video call and stay there till his ‘account’ was verified. Further, they instructed him to isolate himself from his family so that the ‘information’ would not be leaked and his family not dragged into the issue.

“He told his wife and son he was going for an emergency meeting with his boss at a hotel for the next few hours. He asked them not to disturb him until he returned,” a cyber department officer was quoted as saying.

At 4 am, the IT professional left his home in Miyapur and checked into a lodge in Ameerpet, 15 km away, the officer said, adding that the former was threatened into continuing the call during the journey as well.

“They told him the procedure would continue till Monday morning, when banks reopen. Then, he could make an RTGS payment and be released. But they did not quote any amount,” the officer noted.

Early Sunday morning, the call suddenly dropped, and this enabled him to contacted the cyber crime helpline, where officials realised he escaped being conned.