Elderly woman loses Rs 1.25 crore to cyber fraudsters in digital arrest case

Mumbai: A 68-year-old woman was duped of Rs 1.25 crore by cyber fraudsters who coerced her into paying the money by accusing her of being involved in a financial fraud, police said on Tuesday.

The victim is a resident of Goregaon city and lives with her husband.

In her complaint lodged at the cyber police station of the crime branch in November, she received a call from an unidentified woman, who introduced herself as an executive of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), an official said.

She threatened the victim of filing a case for not clearing off her credit card dues and asked her to speak to Hyderabad police. The caller then transferred her number to another man, who posed himself as a police officer.

The man claimed that her credit card was used in financial fraud of Rs 500 crore at Hyderabad and Rs 20 lakh were deposited into her account. The man then told her that he was transferring the call to a CBI officer, who made a video call to the victim woman and threatened to arrest her, he said.

The fraudsters asked the victim to maintain secrecy about her arrest and be at her residence. They asked not to inform any relative, including her husband, he added.

The fraudsters then asked her that if she wanted to save herself from being arrested, she had to deposit money in the given bank accounts, following which the woman deposited around Rs 1.25 crore in a span of one month, the official said.

However, the victim later came across a news item about digital arrest in the newspaper, following which she realised that she was also cheated by the cyber fraudsters.

She immediately approached the police, who registered a case against unidentified persons, he said adding the probe was underway.