Retired army colonel, wife duped of Rs 49 lakh in 'digital arrest' scam

Hamirpur: Cybercriminals allegedly placed a retired Indian Army colonel and his wife under "digital arrest" and duped them of Rs 49 lakh in this Himachal Pradesh district, police said on Friday.

The complainant received a video call on WhatsApp in which a man introduced himself as an "officer of the Mumbai Crime Branch". The suspected fraudster claimed that the retired army officer's Aadhaar was used to procure four SIM cards and open a bank account in Mumbai that was used to launder Rs 2 crore.

The fraudster also threatened to look into the couple's bank accounts.

The victims were under "supervision" of the fraudster for almost 11 hours a day since first receiving a call on March 23. They were also kept on video call while transferring money via RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) to the account number provided by the accused, according to the complaint lodged by the retired army officer.

Claiming that the source of the couple's funds was being investigated, the accused demanded money and the complainant transferred Rs 9 lakh on March 29 and Rs 40 lakh on April 4.

The couple were kept under "digital arrest" till April 7. When they realised they had been cheated, they approached the police on April 10.

A case of cheating was registered at the Cyber Crime police station in Mandi and Rs 5.58 lakh frozen in some suspicious accounts. The accused had moved the money that the couple had transferred to 22 accounts, the police said.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Cyber Crime) Mohit Chawla said the law did not have any provision for "digital arrest".

"Do not fall prey to fraudsters and lose your life's savings. If you receive any such call or message, contact the toll free 1930 number," he added.