News details

image

Shreya Poddar / 24 December, 2024

Digital Arrest scam: old women in Mumbai lost over 3 crore rupees

Mumbai - So far, the longest 'digital arrest' happened in Mumbai! A 77-year-old woman living in South Mumbai has been robbed of several crores of rupees on the pretext of keeping her in digital custody for more than a month.

According to police sources, the cheated woman is 77 years old. His two children live abroad. She lives with her retired husband in a residence in South Mumbai. Last September, he received a call from an unknown number on her WhatsApp number. From the other end, a male voice claiming to be the police said that an old lady's parcel sent to Taiwan had been seized. Five passports, a bank ATM card, several clothes, and drugs were found in it. 

The old woman said she did not send such a parcel! However, she was told that she was identified through an Aadhaar card number. Then the phone call was then transferred to an 'official' of the Mumbai Police. That officer was also fake. The officer 'digitally arrested' the old lady through video call.

This is not the end! After that, the cheating continued for more than a month. In that one month, various 'officials' spoke with the old woman. A person identifying himself as IPS Anand Rana sought his bank account details. After this another 'IPS' called George Mathew. He asked the old lady to send the money to a certain account. It is said that if she is proven innocent, she will get the whole money back. The old woman sent about 38 million rupees to six accounts in stages for a month. But the money was not returned. After this, the old woman realizes that she has been deceived.

The cyber-crime branch of the police has started an investigation into the incident. Transactions have been stopped in those six accounts. A special investigation team comprising four officers has also been constituted for investigation.