Ahmedabad: In yet another case of ‘digital arrest’, a 73-year-old resident of Rashtradeep Society, Ranip, was duped of Rs 25.62 lakh by scammers posing as officials from the Mumbai cyber crime and customs department. The victim, Manu Patel, filed a formal complaint with the Cyber Crime Police on Wednesday detailing the elaborate scam.
According to the complaint filed by Patel, who lives alone in the city while his family resides in the US, the fraud began on Dec 20 when Patel received a call from an unknown woman. Claiming to represent GPO Mumbai, she alleged that a parcel sent by Patel to China was seized by Mumbai Customs for containing illegal substances, including 50 grams of MDMA (a psychotropic drug), along with items such as a passport, an ATM card, and a laptop.
The woman falsely stated that Patel’s Aadhaar card was linked to the seized parcel and that a case was registered against him with the Mumbai cyber crime department. To further intimidate Patel, the woman connected him to another number, where individuals identifying themselves as junior officer Sandeep Dangar and DCP Balsing Rajput from Mumbai cyber crime elaborated on the accusations. They alleged that Patel was involved in drug trafficking and money laundering, warning him of imminent arrest, a seven-year prison sentence, and the seizure of his passport.
Terrified by the threats, Patel was coerced into providing his bank account details. The scammers convinced him that the funds in his accounts needed to be transferred to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) “special escrow account” for forensic verification. Trusting their claims, Patel transferred a total of Rs 25.62 lakh across multiple transactions from his bank accounts.
It was only after realising that the funds were not being returned as promised that Patel approached the city Cyber Crime Police and registered a complaint for criminal conspiracy, impersonation, cheating, breach of trust, and forgery under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with charges of the Information Technology Act.