81-year-old man loses Rs 7 crore in digital arrest scam after fraudsters pose as Mumbai Police

An 81-year-old retired businessman realised he had fallen victim to a digital arrest scam, losing Rs 7.12 crore, reported TOI.

Cyber fraudsters posing as Mumbai Police officers threatened to arrest him in a fabricated drug-trafficking and fake passport case and extorted the money.

According to a complaint filed with the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) on January 2, the octogenarian’s ordeal began on October 27 last year, when he received a WhatsApp call from a man claiming to be Sunil Sharma from a courier company’s customer care. The caller told him that a parcel sent in his name from Mumbai to Bangkok contained a laptop, five passports and 200 grams of MDMA, a narcotic drug, according to a TOI report.


Minutes later, another caller, impersonating a Mumbai crime branch officer, said that based on the “evidence”, the victim faced charges of extortion, drug trafficking, money laundering and terrorism.

Placing him under so-called “digital arrest”, the impostors warned the victim not to disclose details of the case to his family or contact bankers or lawyers, and directed him to reveal details of his investments. Under sustained intimidation, the businessman transferred Rs 19.8 lakh on October 29 to a City Union Bank account.

On the fraudsters’ instructions, he also installed the Signal app to communicate with them. Between November 6 and December 5, he made five additional RTGS transfers of Rs 1.7 crore, Rs 1.75 crore, Rs 98 lakh, Rs 1.5 crore and Rs 1 crore to different bank accounts, taking the total loss to over Rs 7.12 crore, said the TOI report.

On December 29, the scammers demanded another Rs 1.2 crore to “close” the case file against him. Suspecting foul play, the victim searched online and came across recent TOI reports on digital arrest frauds. He filed a complaint on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal on December 31 and approached the TGCSB headquarters on January 2.

A case has been registered under Section 66D of the IT Act and multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for cheating and forgery.

TGCSB officials said the fraudsters used four different mobile numbers and routed the money through multiple accounts of various shell firms. “We are analysing the money trail to identify the accused,” an investigator said.

In another similar case, an 80-year-old technical consultant from Moti Nagar lost Rs 1.75 lakh after callers posing as Bengaluru Police officers and a CBI official claimed his SIM card was linked to a human-trafficking racket. The victim was forced to transfer money through UPI transactions for “verification”.

Based on his complaint, Hyderabad Cyber Crime police registered a case on Friday under relevant sections of the BNS and the IT Act.