New Delhi. You will be surprised to know what happened to a 57 year old senior IT professional living in Bengaluru. Cyber thugs trapped, intimidated, threatened this educated woman and kept her in their digital ‘custody’ for six months and under the threat of CBI, a total of Rs 31.83 crore was defrauded by getting 187 different transactions done. This case is considered to be one of the biggest digital-arrest i.e. online house-arrest scam not only in Karnataka but in the country. Police say that if the woman had talked to someone or disconnected the phone, she could have avoided this huge fraud. But, he did not do so and not only suffered mental torture for six months, but also lost all his savings.
The game started on 15 September 2024, when the victim received a call from someone posing as a DHL employee. The caller said that a suspicious parcel has been intercepted in his name at the Mumbai office in which passport, credit card and banned MDMA drugs have been found. The woman told that she did not send any such parcel. Then the caller claimed that this could be a serious cyber crime and his phone number could be implicated in this matter. Before the woman could understand anything, the call was connected to an alleged “CBI officer”.
Fake CBI officer threatened
This is where the real fraud started. The fake officer told them that they were suspected of being involved in organized crime and were being monitored. By creating an atmosphere of fear, they were told neither to contact the local police nor to tell anyone about this. The marriage of the woman’s son was near. Creating fear about family, society and respect, the thugs said that if they talk to anyone, they can go to jail and the family can be harmed. Due to fear the women immediately fell into their trap.
kept under constant camera surveillance
The thugs ordered him to be on Skype video calls continuously and to always keep the camera on. He was told that this was part of their “CBI investigation” and his every move needed to be monitored. A man, who identified himself as ‘CBI officer Pradeep Singh’, appointed another man ‘Rahul Yadav’ to keep the woman under surveillance. The woman continued to work from home but was not allowed to disconnect calls.
187 transactions and fraud of Rs 32 crore
On September 23, he was called to a hotel, where he was interrogated for hours through Skype. After this, complete details of all his bank accounts, assets and investments were sought in the name of “Financial Intelligence Unit of RBI”. The swindlers said that while the investigation was ongoing, the money kept in her account would have to be deposited as “security reserve” so that their names could be cleared. The scared woman transferred money 187 times in 6 months, the total amount of which was ₹31.83 crore. The swindlers also promised that they would get the entire money back in February 2025. Just before her son’s engagement in December, she was even sent a fake “clearance certificate” to make her more confident.
Torture continued even during illness
Amidst the scam, the woman had to be admitted to the hospital due to serious illness. But even in the hospital, the thugs forced him to give reports on Skype daily. Due to fear, stress and constant surveillance, she started having a mental breakdown, but still could not get out of this trap. On March 26, 2025, the thugs suddenly lost contact completely. For several months the woman thought that perhaps an investigation was going on, but in the end she realized that she had become the victim of a big cyber racket.
