61-year-old Dombivli woman loses Rs 8 lakh in digital arrest scam

A 61yearold woman from Dombivli fell prey to a digital arrest losing Rs 8 lakh to fraudsters over the course of six transactionsThe fraudsters armed with officiallooking documents bearing the emblems of the Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India manipulated her into believing she was under investigation For three days from September 26 to September 28 they kept her in constant fear of arrest forcing her to empty her bank accounts and transfer the funds through RTGS to various accountsThe victimrsquos son Abhishek Dubey PicsBy Special ArrangementThe fraudsters questioned Nirmala in detail about her familyrsquos savings mdash including bank accounts fixed deposits gold and jewellery mdash and instructed her to transfer all the money assuring that it would be returned after ldquoverificationrdquoSpeaking to midday the victim Nirmala Dubey said ldquoI thought I was doing my duty to clear my name from the cases of moneylaundering and other charges I know about ATM or debit card scams and can handle them smartly but this was something entirely new They sounded so genuine and had all official documents so I didnrsquot doubt themrdquoNirmala Dubey victimThroughout the three days she was instructed by the fraudsters to send a text every two hours saying ldquoI am safe I am homerdquo to which they would reply ldquoRecorded to departmentrdquoOn the fourth day after Nirmala uploaded her sonrsquos photographs as her WhatsApp status the calls abruptly stopped mdash revealing the scam ldquoI was in Kazakhstan on a trip On September 29 the day I was supposed to return I sent my mother some pictures from my trip Later I noticed she had uploaded a few of them as her WhatsApp status When I returned home I learnt about everything that had happenedrdquo said Abhishek Nirmalarsquos sonEchoing her sonrsquos account Nirmala said ldquoThe fraudsters had initially asked about my husband and son mdash their work timings and job profiles I would mostly get their calls after my husband left for work in the morning They knew Abhishek wasnrsquot home But when I uploaded his photos they must have assumed he was back If that hadnrsquot happened they would have definitely made me break my fixed deposit mdash that was the only money leftrdquoWhen asked why she hadnrsquot informed her husband or son Nirmala said ldquoThey told me that if anyone else came to know about the case they too would come under the radar for being involved with me My son was abroad and my husband is a heart patient mdash I didnrsquot want to stress him outrdquoAfter the calls stopped Nirmala reached out to her uncle a retired Reserve Bank of India official and narrated the entire incident to him ldquoAll the documents had the RBIrsquos stamp logo mdash everything looked genuine But when I showed them to my uncle he said it was all fake and told me to rush to the police station mdash and thatrsquos exactly what I didrdquo she saidRealising that she had been duped the woman filed a complaint with the Vishnu Nagar police station in Dombivli DCP Zone III Atul Zende Dombivli division said ldquoI have instructed the team to expedite the investigation and until now we have managed to recover Rs 76000 by freezing bank accounts through which the transactions happened We are trying our best to recover more money and further find details of bank accounts to which money was transferredrdquoPolice said they have traced the transactions out of which some were made in Mumbai but many were traced to Ranchi Tamil Nadu and northeastern statesWhat is digital arrestDigital arrest is a cyber fraud method in which scammers impersonate police officers and place victims under a fake arrest on fabricated charges of money laundering human trafficking or terrorismRs 76KMoney so far recovered by police