Woman loses Rs 7.8 crore in cyber fraud, Mumbai police stops ongoing digital arrest
When the woman refused to let them in for nearly an hour, the police team took help from the building landlord who intervened in the matter.
3 min read
An official said that they received information on Monday that a woman had transferred large sums to several bank accounts since July 10 and was flagged as a possible cyber crime case. (File photo)In a first, Mumbai cyber police was informed about an ongoing digital arrest and were able to reach the south Mumbai residence of an 81-year-old woman who had lost Rs 7.8 crore and was at the time being kept under “digital detention”, and were able to convince her that she was being defrauded.
The woman, however, was manipulated by cyber fraudsters and initially refused to let the police in. Eventually, after an hour of back and forth, with the help of the building landlord and the woman’s daughter, she was finally convinced of the digital fraud and an FIR was registered in the matter. The police by then had blocked her bank accounts to ensure she didn’t lose any more money.
An official said that they received information on Monday that a woman had transferred large sums to several bank accounts since July 10 and was flagged as a possible cyber crime case. A team from Azad Maidan police first reached the residence of the woman who resided alone. Her husband has passed away and her two daughters are based abroad. The woman opened the door but did not let the police team inside. Soon another team from the south region cyber police station too reached the spot. The woman, however, had been told by fraudsters that these were not cops and she should not let them in.
When the woman refused to let them in for nearly an hour, the police team took help from the building landlord who intervened in the matter. He convinced the woman that those gathered were real policemen and asked her to allow them inside for a few minutes so that they could sit and talk. Finally she allowed the cyber police team into her house.
The woman told the police team that she was on the phone with ‘cops’ who told her that her account had been used for money laundering by fraudsters. The accused told her that they wanted to send money from her account to the central bank to verify that they were not proceeds of crime. The accused were dressed in police uniform and had some footage from outside Colaba police station in the background to prove they were genuine.
The woman said that she received the first call on July 10 and since then she had cleaned out her savings, fixed deposits, and mutual funds totally worth Rs 7.8 crore. The police then showed her newspaper clippings of similar digital arrest frauds where people were told the same thing.
“The woman was still not convinced. Eventually we made her talk to her daughter. The daughter spoke to her mother over the phone and convinced her that the person who had kept her under digital arrest was a fraudster, following which the woman agreed to give a complaint and an FIR was registered,” the official said.
The official added that even prior to the woman’s statement, based on the money transfers that had been made, they had called up the cyber police helpline 1930 and also got her accounts blocked so that she did not lose any more money.
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