In one of the biggest cyber fraud cases reported in recent months, a 57-year-old senior executive of an IT company in Bengaluru was allegedly cheated of ₹31.83 crore in the course of one year by a gang posing as officials from a courier company, the Cyber Crime Department, CBI and RBI, in a meticulously planned ‘digital arrest’ scam.
According to the complaint, the victim received a call on September 15, 2024 from a person claiming to be from a well-known courier company. He claimed that a parcel booked in her name at the Andheri branch of the company in Mumbai contained prohibited items, including credit cards, passports and MDMA (a narcotic substance). When the victim denied any connection with the parcel, she was told that her identity had been misused and the matter would be transferred to the cybercrime division.
The call was then diverted to individuals posing as officers of the CBI, who threatened her with arrest, claiming that all evidence pointed to her involvement. They warned her against approaching the local police or disclosing the matter to anyone, saying her family’s safety could be at risk as ‘criminals were watching her’.
Fearing repercussions, especially with her son’s wedding approaching, the executive complied. She was instructed to install Skype — a video messaging tool — and stay connected on video, with scammers keeping her under ‘digital house arrest’ for days. The impersonators, identifying themselves as ‘CBI officers’ Mohit Handa and Pradeep Singh, coerced her to prove her innocence by ‘verifying’ her assets with the ‘Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the RBI’.
