Mumbai: A 73-year-old retired medical officer fell prey to scammers and lost Rs 31.50 lakh in digital arrest fraud. The scammers posed as telecom department and police officials and induced the complainant to redeem all his investment money and transfer them in different beneficiary bank accounts.
According to the police, the complainant is from Jalgaon. On June 16, the complainant received a phone call from a person who claimed to be from the telecom department. The caller informed the complainant that a criminal case has been registered against him in Delhi and that he would receive a call from the police in this regard.
After some time, the complainant received a WhatsApp video call from a person wearing a police uniform. The said 'officer' told the complainant that his involvement has been found in a Rs 6.8 crore money laundering case and that he had received commission from this case in his bank account opened in Delhi.
The caller then told the complainant that he has been placed under digital arrest and warned that if he concealed any information then he would be jailed for three years, The scammers also shared bogus arrest warrant with the complainant over WhatsApp,
From June 16 till June 23, the scammers induced the complainant to redeem all his investment money and transfer Rs 31.50 lakh in different beneficiary bank accounts in multiple online transactions. Later the complainant informed his son about the incident and learnt that he had been scammed.
He then approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter. The cyber crime police have registered a case under sections 318 (cheating), 336 (forgery) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
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