Mumbai: A 64-year-old man has fallen prey to scammers and lost Rs18 lakh in digital arrest fraud. According to the police, the complainant, a resident of Jalgaon, received a phone call from a person claiming to be from TRAI on November 19.
The caller said that a SIM card had been procured in his name and a money laundering case had been registered on the number with the Mumbai crime branch.
Later, the complainant was connected to another ‘official’ via video call and a man wearing a police uniform spoke to the complainant.
The caller told the complainant that he was found to be involved in a money laundering case.
The man was then placed under ‘digital arrest’ between November 19 and November 25 and during the said period, the scammers asked him about his investments and bank balance.
As the complainant said that he has mutual fund investments, he was told to redeem his funds and transfer the same to a bank account provided by scammers.
Following the instructions, the senior citizen transferred the money. He was told that the money would be credited back to his bank account once the verification of the financial details was completed.
More than a week later, when the man didn’t get his money back and his calls to scammers were not answered, he realised that he had been duped and approached the police.
A case has been registered by the cyber crime police under sections 318 (cheating), 336 (forgery) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
