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New Delhi: In a shocking case reported from Madhya Pradesh's Indore, a 67-year-old woman lost Rs 30 lakh to fraudsters. According to reports, the woman was tricked into believing that she had been named in a terror case. According to the police, the scamsters then put her under digital arrest.
According to Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajesh Dandotiya, the woman received an anonymous call on November 23. The caller, reportedly identified himself as a Superintendent of Police, posted in Jammu and Kashmir.
The woman was told over the phone that a mobile phone seized from a terrorist had revealed clues to money laundering worth Rs 2,300 crore, and the woman's bank account had been used for it, reported NDTV. He further said that the woman had received Rs 1.50 crore, in exchange for the money laundered.
The fraudster threatened the woman with arrest if she did not immediately transfer the money from her account to "government accounts for a verification." The threat left the woman frightened. She began to transfer the money from November 23 and began to do so till December 3. In the process she lost Rs 30 lakh of her savings.
The police officer said that the woman lived alone in her house. She has two sons, both of whom are abroad. The frightened woman did not share her ordeal with anyone for several days, and kept transferring money to the accounts shared by the caller. Later however she mustered courage and told everything with her daughter and son-in-law. Both of them immediately contacted the cyber cell of the Indore Police.
The police have launched a probe in the matter. So far however nobody has been arrested and nor has the money been recovered.
The woman from Indore faced a situation called "digital arrest", which has become very common these days. Digital arrest is a method to deceive people, adopted by fraudsters these days. In this case, the fraudsters often pose as law enforcement officials and contact people through video and audio calls. The caller tricks people into believing that they are involved in some illegal activities.
The callers then tell them a way out, saying that if they manage to transfer such and such amount of money in a certain bank account, their name would be cleared. More often than not, this is the modus operandi of the fraudsters. The callers also tell the victims that they must not contact anyone during the entire time that the "legal process" was on and that they should only listen to what they are being told.
