Ex-serviceman’s wife put under digital arrest, scammed of Rs 35L

Bengaluru: Cybercrooks posing as cops cheated a retired serviceman's 66-year-old wife of Rs 35 lakh in a span of five days, after falsely accusing her of money laundering and telling her she was facing a CBI probe and was under digital arrest.
Renuka (name changed), in her complaint to East CEN Crime police, stated she received an IVR call on Jan 8 from 1-866-315-6911, claiming to be from the Telephone Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and warning her that her phone number and bank accounts would be frozen immediately. The fraudster on the call told her a sim card (9834156045) was bought at a shop on Mathura Das Vasanji Road, Andheri East, Mumbai, on Dec 11, 2024 in her name and it had been used for extortion and spurious advertising. She was told an FIR was registered against her in Mumbai.
Renuka denied involvement in any fraudulent activity. "He then told me he was transferring the call to Mumbai Andheri East police station, and the name ‘Mumbai Police' appeared on the number 6000258375. So, I believed it was an official call," she told cops.
A fraudster claiming to be ‘ACP Pradip Sawant' told her she was under house arrest until she was proven innocent in the online investigation. During the video call, Renuka noticed that the person was speaking from what appeared to be a police station.
Warned of arrest
The fraudsters threatened Renuka they would physically arrest her in full public glare if she didn't completely cooperate with them. They said as per the ‘Supreme Court Secrets Act', she had to display a handwritten undertaking not to speak to, contact or meet anyone, including police, during the probe, failing which she would be jailed for 1.5 years. She was warned against informing even her husband and said any violation would mean a ‘Red Corner Alert' for his arrest, extradition and jail term.
The fraudsters also told her that debit cards with her name were found from the house of tainted JET Airways founder Naresh Goyal. They told her she had received Rs 6.2 crore as commission for facilitating money laundering and drug trafficking.
They kept her under 24x7 surveillance. In the name of online interrogation, they shouted at her and accused her of hiding information and keeping unaccounted money. She requested her interrogators to send someone to check the whole house. They took her bank details, travel records, and photos and screenshots of her source of income. They made her write another letter stating she had not purchased any sim card.
Dictating her how to even sit, one of them shouted at her once: "Arrest her immediately! CBI three proofs are there of her involvement. Don't spare her!"
In the name of online verification, they made her transfer money from her accounts to accounts they provided, claiming a Supreme Court auditor would verify it and return it to her within 48 hours if she was found innocent.
When the money never came back, she called Andheri East police in Mumbai and learnt she had been scammed.