Mumbai Cyber Fraud: 74-Year-Old Pune Retired Official Duped Of ₹1.28 Crore In ‘Digital Arrest’ Scam; FIR Registered

Mumbai, September 23, 2026: A 74-year-old retired government official has fallen prey to scammers in a digital arrest fraud and ended up losing Rs 1.28 crore. Statistics revealed that this year the city police have registered 95 cases of digital arrest, out of which only 36 cases were detected and 71 persons were arrested in these cases.

Fake Telecom Department Call

According to the police, the victim is a resident of Pune. On August 20, the victim received a call from a woman claiming to be calling from the telecom department. She told the victim that his Aadhaar card had been misused to get a SIM card, which was used to make threatening calls and send pornographic videos to people in Mumbai.

Later, a person claiming to be a Mumbai Crime Branch officer spoke to the victim and informed him that an FIR had been registered in the matter. The scammer then sent bogus documents to the victim, such as an FIR and money laundering-related papers. The scammer then told the victim that, since he is a senior citizen, he would help him in the investigation.

Victim Transfers Rs 1.28 Crore

They then induced the victim to share details of his investments and savings. Thereafter, from August 27 till September 1, the victim was induced to transfer Rs 1.28 crore to different beneficiary bank accounts in four transactions on the pretext of verifying his financial details. The victim got suspicious of these calls and later narrated the entire episode to his relative and realised that he had been duped.

He then approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter. An FIR has been registered by the cybercrime police under Sections 308 (extortion), 318 (cheating), 319 (cheating by personation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Sections 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act in the matter.

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Police Step Up Awareness Efforts

The police sources said that most of the victims involved in these cases are senior citizens and efforts are being taken by the police to create awareness among citizens about such scams.

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