Digital Arrest Fraud: Fake CBI Officer, Cop Dupes Woman Of ₹3.91 Lakh In Thane

A 37-year-old woman was duped of Rs3.91 lakh by scammers who posed as police and officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and induced her to pay the amount.

According to the police, the complainant is a resident of Thane. On June 29, she received a call from an unknown person claiming that a money laundering case had been registered against her. The caller then switched the call to video calling and the complainant could see a person in a police uniform with several Aadhar cards lying on his table.

The ‘officer’ claimed to be from Lucknow police and told her that they had arrested a person from Bandra in a money laundering case and from him, materials like a mobile, KYC letter, SIM card had been recovered and the said SIM card is registered in her name using her Aadhar card. The caller claimed that the woman had purchased the said SIM card from Lucknow.

The woman, however, denied all the claims made by the caller. The caller told her that the case would be transferred to the CBI for further investigation. After that a person claiming to be a CBI officer spoke to the complainant and the latter told the person that she had nothing to do with the alleged money laundering case.

The ‘CBI officer’ then told her that if she wanted to prove her innocence, she would have to come to Lucknow and file an FIR or she could also file an online FIR. The scammer also shared a bogus arrest warrant. After reading the warrant, the complainant got scared and got ready to file an FIR online. She was told to pay Rs3.50 lakh to file an online FIR and a stamp duty on it of Rs41,000. The woman then deposited the money in the bank account number provided by the scammer.

The scammer then shared a bogus Notarised Supervision Acknowledgement, which stated that the amount sent by the victim would remain in their custody until the investigation of the said crime is over. Later, the terrified complainant informed her husband about the said incident who told her that she had been conned. When the victim checked her phone, she learnt that all the messages sent to her by the scammer were deleted.

A case was registered on Friday under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.