Bengaluru News: In another case of digital arrest, a Bengaluru woman was conned out of over Rs 30 lakh by the online scammers impersonating themselves as officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Mumbai police. The 46-year-old woman in Indiranagar of Bengaluru fell into their trap, as the scammers had a setup similar to the police stations, and they also carried fake identity cards with them.
She was held under arrest for 11 days as the fraudsters kept demanding more money from her, Deccan Herald reported. However, the victim came to realise about the fraud after the scammers stopped contacting her after 11 days. She later came to know that she was under digital arrest for the past several days after going through similar news articles. She later filed a complaint with the police on December 19.
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The scam began on December 3 when the victim received a call allegedly from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The callers instructed her to press a number unless her SIM card and bank accounts would get deactivated. Upon pressing the mentioned number, she was connected to a person claiming to be from TRAI. He further informed her that a SIM card registered in her name was linked to harassment complaints, the report added.
The call was later transferred to an alleged Mumbai police sub-inspector who claimed that the charges against her were serious and later instructed the victim to fly to Mumbai immediately or face a "digital arrest". She was then subjected to multiple video calls with a man who claimed to be a CBI official. He repeatedly accused the victim of money laundering.
She was asked to pay them in multiple installments, including breaking her fixed deposits worth Rs 27.5 lakh to allegedly verify her funds. However, they deactivated the skype video call after the scam on December 15. The police stated that they have registered a case and a probe into the matter was underway.