Elderly woman from Mumbai falls prey to 'digital arrest' fraud, loses Rs 3.80 crore

Mumbai: A 77-year-old woman from Mumbai was kept under "digital arrest" for a month by cyber fraudsters who posed as law enforcement officials and made her transfer Rs 3.8 crore, claiming her Aadhaar card was used in a money laundering case.

The woman's ordeal began a month ago when an unknown man made a WhatsApp call and told the victim that a parcel sent by her to Taiwan contained MDMA drugs, five passports, a bank card, and clothes.

When the homemaker, who lives with her retired husband in south Mumbai, told the caller that she didn't send any parcel, the person said details of her Aadhaar card were used in the crime, a police official said on Wednesday.

The caller then connected the woman to a "Mumbai Police officer" who told her that her Aadhaar card was linked to a money laundering case under investigation.

"The caller asked the woman to download the Skype app and told her that police officers would talk to her. She was ordered not to disconnect the call and disclose the matter," the official said.

Later, a man who identified himself as an IPS officer sought details of her bank accounts. Another man, claiming to be an IPS officer from the finance department, asked the woman to transfer money to bank accounts provided by them.

"They told her that the money would be returned if no illegality is found," the official said.

The accused returned the Rs 15 lakh transferred by the woman, apparently to gain her trust.

"They subsequently asked the woman to send all her money from the joint bank accounts of her husband. She ended up transferring Rs 3.8 crore in several transactions to six bank accounts," the official said.

The complainant suspected something was amiss when she didn't get her money back even as the accused kept demanding more funds in the name of taxes to release the money she had transferred to them.

"The woman called up her daughter who lives abroad. Her daughter told her she was being conned and asked her to approach police," the official said.

The woman subsequently dialled the cyber helpline number 1930, following which investigators froze the six bank accounts where the money was transferred, he said, adding that the crime branch was probing the case.