An elderly NRI couple — Indira Taneja, 77, and her husband Om Taneja, 81 — was duped of nearly ₹15 crore in Delhi after they were put under what scamsters call “digital arrest” for over 15 days. The scammers posed as officials of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and Mumbai Police, said Delhi Police on Sunday.
The couple, after realising what had happened to them, said that their “biggest mistake” was not approaching the police earlier. "We were told by the SHO (of Delhi Police) that we were put under (so-called) ‘digital arrest’. And that is when we realised what had happened," said Om Taneja, reported news agency PTI.
"Not informing the police earlier was our biggest mistake," he said. They lost ₹14.85 crore.
Also read: Another senior citizen falls prey to ‘digital arrest scam’ in Chandigarh
How the crime unfolded
Indira Taneja, a resident of Delhi’s posh Greater Kailash-2 area, alleged that she got a call on December 24 by someone posing as an official of TRAI. The person on the call claimed that a phone number associated with Indira was involved in making offensive and abusive calls, and that she was also under scanner for a money laundering case, reported news agency ANI.
The scammer also alleged that black money was detected in her account and thus she was on the authorities’ radar.
{{/usCountry}}The scammer also alleged that black money was detected in her account and thus she was on the authorities’ radar.
{{/usCountry}}Also read: Satyam scam: All you need to know about India's biggest accounting fraud
Then, Indira said, the scammer connected her to someone posing as a police official from Mumbai’s Colaba through a video call. The man on the video call was dressed in police uniform, she said, and told her that there was a bank account in her name in Canara Bank which was linked to a major fraud.
The scammer allegedly also told the woman that there was threat to their life and that they should not speak to anyone about this matter.
Detailing her ordeal, Indira Taneja told PTI that on December 24, it was around noon that she received a call from the man claiming to be from TRAI. "He told me that my telephone number was being disconnected because obscene calls were made from it and that 26 people had filed complaints," she said.
When the person on the call mentioned a number, she said she told him that it was not hers.
"Despite that, he said arrest warrants were issued against me and an FIR was registered in Maharashtra," she said.
Following this, Indira claimed, the scammers told her that the case was being transferred to Mumbai's Colaba Police and connected her to someone on video call.
"A man named ‘Vikrant Singh Rajput’ appeared on the screen wearing a police uniform. I could see police insignia behind him. He told me I was involved in money laundering," she told reporters, adding that the man in the uniform claimed that a bank account was opened in her name at a Canara Bank branch in Mumbai and several huge transactions were made through it.
The scammer also allegedly showed her photograph of a man, whom he called ‘Naresh Goyal’, and asked she I knew him.
"I told him I had never seen this person in my life," she said.
The scammers continued to allegedly manipulate her. "They said a fraud of ₹500 crore had taken place and that since I had returned from the US to serve the nation, it had become a national-security issue," Indira said.
The ‘verification’ process
Claiming that the issue was of national security, the scammers asked the couple to not get anyone involved and asked them to send money from their bank accounts for verification.
"They kept demanding money — ₹2 crore, ₹2.1 crore, ₹2.5 crore. The phone or the video call remained active almost throughout the day. I was ‘digitally arrested’ from December 24 noon till January 9 morning," Indira said.
After losing their life's savings, the victims alleged that the scammers told them that they would get a refund through the Reserve Bank of India and that there were stamps of the Supreme Court on their papers.
How spell broke
It was not till the elderly couple approached the police did they realise they had been duped.
"I am very shocked. Thankfully, we went to the police station and learned that we had been defrauded. All the drama they did was very convincing. They said they would help us," Indira said, as quoted by ANI.
According to police, the scammers kept the victim under constant psychological pressure and threatened her with legal consequences. They allegedly persuaded the couple to send them money via RTGS.
Om Taneja described the accused as “well-formed” and said that they had a lot of information about the couple.
"They convinced us in such a way that, out of fear, we gave them all our information. There were three people involved in this," he told ANI.
The victim later reached out to the national cybercrime helpline at ‘1930’ and has requested time to write a detailed complaint in her counsel’s presence, following which it will be transferred to the Cyber Crime Unit. An FIR into the matter has already been registered by Delhi Police’s IFSO unit, according to the ANI report.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)