82-year-old Pune man under ‘digital arrest’ since January, loses Rs 2.7 cr to fraudsters

PUNE: A retired manager (82) of a multinational company lost Rs2.74 crore to cybercrooks posing as Mumbai Crime Branch and CBI personnel in a digital arrest fraud between Jan first week and Wednesday.

The crooks told the 82-year-old Kothrud resident that they had installed a surveillance app in his cellphone. The senior citizen believed he was constantly under their watch till he realised the fraud and approached the Pune cyberpolice on Wednesday to lodge a complaint.

Senior inspector Swapnali Shinde said, "The crooks contacted the victim on a messaging application in the first week of Jan posing as the Mumbai Crime Branch personnel and claimed that they were investigating a money laundering case involving a former airline owner, arrested in its connection. They told the senior citizen to cooperate with the investigation online."

The police said the crooks told the victim that his bank account was used in the money laundering operation and the money trail showed its repeated use in the crime. "They told the victim to share his bank account details, Aadhaar and PAN cards for verification. Under pressure, the victim shared details of all his bank accounts, including fixed deposits," Shinde said.

"The crooks then claimed that his cellphone and its camera would be under continuous surveillance, day and night. They also told him that he had been digitally arrested," the senior police inspector said.

"The victim did not share anything about the matter with his wife. The crooks contacted him sporadically and demanded money, and he kept transferring money to them. Each time, the crooks shared a different bank account with him. The Kothrud resident transferred money to 12 different bank accounts," Shinde said.

"The victim was so convinced that he believed he and his phone were under constant surveillance. His wife became suspicious after a few days and spoke to him about it. Last week, the couple decided to consult a lawyer to defend their case online with the fraudsters. When they met the lawyer, the latter realised that it was a case of digital arrest. The lawyer then took them to the Pune Cyberpolice station and helped them lodge a complaint," Shinde said.