Online Fraud: Nowadays scammers are adopting various tactics to cheat people. One of these is digital arrest fraud. In this, the person is threatened with arrest online and in this way money is extorted from him. Something similar happened recently with an 84-year-old retired government officer and his wife. However, by taking appropriate steps in time, both of them were saved from losing Rs 1.50 crore. The matter is of Ahmedabad.
first threatened by calling
This elderly couple living here received a call on WhatsApp, in which the scammer introduced himself as a Court Liaison Officer. He told that his name is Pradeep Kumar. To lure the elderly person, the scammer told that he had received the news from one of his relatives that his name has cropped up in a money laundering case related to a private airline, hence he will have to appear in the online court. The caller also instructed both the husband and wife not to leave the house or allow anyone inside.
Video call also came
Every effort was made to ensure that the elderly couple did not have any suspicion from anywhere. He also received a video call from the scammers, in which a court-like background was shown, where a hearing was seen taking place. A man was sitting on the screen as a judge. Apart from this, a prosecutor and staff were also seen. The person pretending to be a judge claimed to have opened 227 accounts in the name of the couple and started interrogating them about it. When the couple refused, they were warned that they would face trouble if they did not cooperate.
Elderly people scared of digital arrest
Then the callers told him about being ‘digitally arrested’. During this time the old man was asked to remain sitting in front of the phone, while the woman was asked to transfer money. A relative of the couple also helped the scammers in this task, who explained to the couple, “The callers told them that they will have to verify all the money they currently have and only then they will be acquitted of the charges. Since they did not use online banking, they were asked to go to the bank for RTGS transfer.”
This is how the truth was revealed
On December 9, the woman went to the bank and transferred Rs 21 lakh to the scammers’ account. He thought that the money would be sent back to his account after verification. On the second day he transferred another Rs 21 lakh. He also had Rs 1.5 crore in another account. He got this money after selling a property. The scammers also asked for this money and said that if they did not transfer the money, they would be sued and would be fined heavily. Scared, she went to the bank to transfer the entire amount.
The manager found all this strange and he went to a police officer present in the bank to investigate it. After this, the police went with the woman to her house, where they saw the woman’s elderly husband talking to several men on video call. When he told the people on the call that he was from the police, they immediately disconnected the call. He then told the couple that they had been cheated and advised them to go to the cybercrime helpline. The couple lodged a complaint on the National Cybercrime Portal. FIR is yet to be registered in this case.
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