Berhampur: Even as the authorities have been warning the gullible against the digital arrest menace, cybercriminals defrauded a teacher couple in Odisha’s Ganjam district of Rs 34.5 lakh through digital arrest.
The scam came to the light after the woman lodged a complaint at the Berhampur Cyber and Economic Offenses police station on Wednesday.
As per the complaint, the woman’s husband received a call January 20 from an unknown person posing as a TRAI official. The caller claimed that her husband’s mobile SIM card would be deactivated within two hours. The caller falsely accused him of involvement in an Rs 2.38 crore money laundering case registered at the Kolaba police station in Maharashtra. The caller further alleged that an arrest warrant had also been issued against her husband.
Later, the fraudsters connected with the woman via WhatsApp video calls from four different numbers. During these calls, they impersonated police officers and a Supreme Court judge to convince the couple of the fabricated charges, ultimately coercing them into transferring the money.
Fearing consequences, the teacher first transferred Rs 30 lakh from her account at the Ankushpur branch of State Bank of India (SBI) to an account in Madhya Pradesh December 21. On the following day, she made another transfer of Rs 4.5 lakh via RTGS from the SBI’s Bijipur branch in Berhampur to a different account.
Scammers told her that all the money in her bank account would be transferred to the Reserve Bank and that she would only get it back after an investigation. They also warned that both she and her husband would be arrested if she failed to deposit the money. Even after making the transfers, the cyber fraudsters continued to call and intimidate the couple.
Finding no option, the teacher approached the manager of the Ankushpur SBI branch to discuss the issue. When she realized that she had been a victim of cybercriminals, the teacher filed a complaint at the police station. Police registered a case (12/25) and launched an investigation.
