A bank manager lost Rs 56 lakh after being “digitally arrested” by cyber fraudsters in Karnataka’s Mandya district.
The police cracked the case after nine months and arrested three persons in connection with the crime.
According to police, the victim is a woman bank manager working at Bank of Baroda.
The cyber criminals, posing as officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), contacted her through a video call and accused her of being involved in money laundering and making threatening calls.
They further alleged that she was linked to a hawala racket and claimed to have records proving she had threatened others. The fraudsters convinced her that she needed to immediately transfer money from her bank accounts to avoid imminent arrest. They promised to return the amount by evening after verifying and clearing the confusion, according to police.
They warned her not to move away during the video call. After she transferred the money, it was routed into 29 different bank accounts.
Realising that she had been duped, the bank manager filed a complaint at the Cyber Economic and Narcotics (CEN) police station in Mandya.
During the investigation, police found that the accounts receiving the money were fake.
Further probe revealed that the cybercriminal gang was based in Rajasthan. However, when a team visited Rajasthan, they discovered that the gang was operating from Delhi.
The police team arrested one of the accused, Gopal Bishnoi, in Delhi. Based on the information he provided, two more accused, Mahipal Bishnoi and Jitendra Singh, were also arrested. Police have recovered Rs 1.5 lakh, as the rest of the money had been dispersed through 29 different bank accounts.
Recently, two women in Bengaluru were duped out of money and coerced into undressing on a video call by fraudsters posing as police officers in a “digital arrest” scam.
The women were kept on video call for nine hours, where they were allegedly pressured to strip naked for an online medical examination to identify birthmarks and moles. The accused had recorded video of the women.
The cyber crooks posed as officers from Mumbai’s Colaba police station.
