A 39-year-old software engineer from Bengaluru’s Hebbal was defrauded of a staggering Rs 11.8 crore over an 18-day period in a sophisticated “digital arrest” scam.
The scam began on November 11, when a fraudster impersonating an official from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) contacted the victim. The caller claimed that a SIM card linked to the victim’s Aadhaar was being used for illegal advertisements and cyber harassment, adding that a case had been registered at a police station in Mumbai.
Shortly after, another fraudster posing as a police officer accused the victim of involvement in money laundering and warned him of imminent physical arrest if he failed to cooperate.
The victim was then instructed to download the Skype app for a video conversation with a third fraudster pretending to be a Mumbai police officer. During these calls, the fraudster claimed that a businessman named Naresh Goyal had opened a Canara Bank account using the victim’s Aadhaar to conduct transactions worth Rs 6 crore. To lend credibility to the deception, the fraudsters presented a fake Reserve Bank of India guideline document and demanded that the victim transfer money for verification purposes.
Fearing arrest, the victim transferred funds to multiple bank accounts controlled by the fraudsters. He first transferred Rs 75 lakh to one account, followed by Rs 3.41 crore to another. By December 12, he had transferred a total of Rs 11.8 crore across several accounts.
Upon realising he had been conned, the victim filed a police complaint on December 12. This case is part of a larger wave of digital arrest scams sweeping across the country.
In a scam involving a digital arrest, cybercriminals contact a target, pretending to be government officials from law enforcement agencies like the CBI, Narcotics Control Bureau, or Customs officers. Using a combination of audio and video calls through platforms such as WhatsApp or Skype, they intimidate victims by accusing them of involvement in illegal activities – transporting drugs or dealing in contraband goods, supposedly detected through suspicious packages, money laundering investigations, or the misuse of personal information such as Aadhaar details.
