70-year-old man duped of Rs 89 lakh in cyber scam in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: A 70-year-old retired bank employee from Bengaluru was held in digital arrest for 11 days, threatened, abused, and defrauded of around Rs 89 lakh by cybercriminals, the police revealed on Tuesday.

A case was registered on January 3 after a complaint was filed by R Swamy (name changed), a resident of Nagarabhavi.

The police said the trauma began on November 16 when Swamy received a call from an unknown number instructing him to press 9 on his phone. Complying, he was connected to a caller who claimed to be a police officer from New Delhi.

The impersonator informed Swamy that an FIR had been filed against him and transferred the call to someone posing as a representative of the "cybercrime department". 

The second caller accused Swamy of being involved in money laundering, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. They further intimidated him, warning that his family would face charges if he disclosed the matter to anyone.

Under the guise of verifying his finances, the scammers instructed Swamy to transfer all his savings and fixed deposits to an "account with the Reserve Bank of India". 

Succumbing to the pressure, Swamy wired Rs 89,54,471 through multiple transactions to three bank accounts provided by the fraudsters.

Swamy approached the police weeks later when the impersonators ceased contact and failed to return his money.