Threatened with ‘digital arrest’, Pune senior citizen loses Rs 4.37 crore in cyber fraud

In the first week of December last year, the woman received WhatsApp messages and calls from unidentified numbers. She was told that her Aadhaar credentials were being misused for drugs trafficking and money laundering.

“Your name has been linked to the main accused Ashok Gupta. These are very serious charges. You will have to do as we tell you to, otherwise you will be jailed,” she was told, according to her complaint to the police.

Sometime after this call, she was sent fraudulent documents titled ‘CBI (consent to terms confidentiality agreement)’ and ‘Directorate of Enforcement, Arrest and Freezing Orders.’ She was told by a WhatsApp caller that she will have to pay close to Rs 5 crores and that her case was being handled by ‘CBI Delhi’.

Later, she received a WhatsApp call from a man who identified himself as a CBI Delhi officer. This fraudster told her that she had been placed under ‘digital arrest’ and she was not allowed to communicate or discuss the case with anyone else. She was asked to remain on video or audio calls when asked. She was instructed to write down details of all her bank accounts, savings and investments in a diary and send its photos for ‘verification.’ Afraid of legal action, the complainant did as instructed.

Over the next four weeks, the complainant was made to remain on video calls or audio calls intermittently and make as many as eight large transfers—some were online transactions and some even cash deposits— to fraudulent bank accounts registered at locations such as Imphal, Tezpur, Navi Mumbai, Rishikesh, Jhargram in West Bengal among others.

In the first week of January, when a family member of the complainant saw the entries in her diary and checked her bank account, the complainant was made to realise that she had been duped in a cyber fraud. The complainant subsequently approached the cyber crime police station and an FIR was registered. “A probe has been initiated in the case.” an officer said.

In November last year, a 59-year-old senior IT executive from Pune lost Rs 6.29 crore — nearly his entire life savings — to online criminals who posed as CBI officers. The fraudsters threatened action in connection with a money laundering case, placing him under ‘digital arrest’ at his home and forcing him to remain on video call over several hours on the pretext of ‘surveillance.’