Nagpur Pensioner Duped of Rs 10 Lakh by Fake Mumbai IPS Officer
An 87-year-old retired government employee residing in Nagpur was defrauded of ₹10 lakh in a "digital arrest" scam by a fraudster posing as a Mumbai IPS officer. The elaborate scam, which began on July 3, subjected the elderly victim to a multi-day psychological ordeal before he realized he had been cheated.
According to the police, the victim received a WhatsApp video call on July 3 from an unidentified individual claiming to be an IPS officer from Mumbai. The caller informed the victim that a fraud had taken place at a bank. He claimed that during the ongoing probe of the case, a bank account belonging to the victim had surfaced as one used in the commission of the crime.
The fraudster told the victim that if he wanted to clear his name and get himself out of the police investigation, he would have to strictly follow instructions. The scammer then declared that the victim had been placed under a "digital arrest" and warned him not to reveal anything about the matter to his family members.
Under this duress, the scammer induced the retired employee to share sensitive information, including details about his family members and his bank balances. The victim was then instructed to transfer ₹10 lakh into what was claimed to be an RBI account for verification purposes. The scammer assured the victim that the money would be credited back to his account once he was cleared of any wrongdoing.
The scammer forced the victim to keep the WhatsApp video call active for an entire day. The next morning, the victim visited his bank and transferred the ₹10 lakh into the bank account provided by the caller.
The psychological hold did not end there. For the next two days, the victim was kept under the fake digital arrest and was pressured to transfer even more money.
Suspicious of the ongoing demands, the victim eventually called his son and informed him about the situation, at which point he realized he had been scammed.
A complaint was subsequently raised on the cyber crime portal. The police have registered a case under sections 204 (personating a public servant), 318 (cheating), and 319 (cheating by personation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, as well as section 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
