A 61-year-old retired government employee from Musheerabad, Hyderabad, allegedly lost Rs 74.5 lakh in a digital arrest scam after fraudsters impersonated Mumbai police, police said.
The woman, who had worked for a public sector insurance company, received a call on September 16 from a person claiming to be from Colaba police station. The caller alleged that someone had used her Aadhaar details to obtain a SIM card, which was then used to harass women, and said an FIR had been registered against her.
She was later contacted by a man who identified himself as Inspector Sanjay. He allegedly showed her forged bank statements and fake Enforcement Directorate (ED) and court summons accusing her of money laundering and terror funding.
The callers told the woman and her husband that their savings had to be checked through a “protected RBI-linked account”. Following their instructions, the couple transferred Rs 74.5 lakh on September 22 to a bank account provided by the fraudsters. The woman said they later received a fake acknowledgement in the name of the ED.
The fraudsters also asked the woman to mortgage her gold, but she refused. They later stopped contacting her. After she was unable to reach them, she approached the police and lodged a complaint on Thursday.
Police registered a case under Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act, and Sections 308(2), 318(4), 319(2), 336(3) and 340(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, covering extortion, cheating, personation and forgery-related offences.
