A 77-year-old woman from Mumbai was among the latest victims, having been conned ₹3.8 crore by criminals who disguised themselves as police officers. The scammers kept her captive for what is believed to be the most extended digital arrest in India, which lasted a month.
The incident started when a woman from South Mumbai, a homemaker who lives with her husband, got a WhatsApp call. She requested a package that she supposedly sent to Taiwan but was retrieved with forged items such as five passports, four kg of clothes, an illicit drug, and a bank card known as MDMA. It turned nasty and falsely accused her of being involved in money laundering.
The imitators posing as policemen mailed the woman a fake Mumbai Crime Branch notice to her. When she said she did not send any parcel, they accused her of having her Aadhaar card details compromised. She was transferred to another person using the fake identity of an officer from the Crime Branch. She was forced into installing Skype when a man, who identified himself as IPS officer Anand Rana, said she should not hang the call and should not speak to anyone about it.
Moreover, the pretenders did not leave the deception at that; another man came to the call with a story that he was from the finance department. He persuaded her to withdraw the money and deposit it in another account, citing an investigation comparatively; if she was brought to court, he assured her the money would be refunded if she was not guilty. These scammers never kept off her line; she got a call as soon as she hung up if the connection was interrupted, threats included.
The woman, at first, invested ₹15 lakh, but gradually the amount crossed ₹3.8 crore within a month. When there was no information given in regard to the so-called case, she turned to her daughter who then revealed the information. The Mumbai Crime Branch is probing into the matter, the latest sign of an increased technical sophistication of such fraud.
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