Hyderabad techie placed under 'Digital Arrest' for nearly 30-Hrs, escapes with police's help

A Hyderabad-based techie, who was placed under "digital arrest" by cybercriminals in a fake money laundering case for nearly 30 hours, managed to escape from the online fraudsters with the help of police, thankfully without losing money, police said on Oct 28.

The ordeal began for the 44-year-old IT employee on Oct 26 early morning with the fraudsters posing as Mumbai police officials started threatening him with arrest in the money laundering case, and demanded ₹ 40 lakh to escape the arrest.

The fraudsters made voice and video calls to him through an instant messaging app and passed instructions not to disconnect their call.

It was only after the call of the cyber criminals got dropped on Oct 27 morning, the techie informed the Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police Station about the ordeal and was saved from losing money.

According to the techie on the night of Oct 25, he received text messages saying that his mobile phone number and Aadhar number were found linked to a money laundering case filed in Mumbai, but he ignored the messages.

However, the fraudsters posing as police officials made voice and video calls to him on Oct 26 at around 3 a.m, and threatened that he would be arrested in the money laundering case worth several crores, he told police.

They instructed him to stay on the call with them continuously for verification and to not reveal to anyone about it including his family.

They also sent him fake documents including FIR, a warrant issued against him, and to scare him the most, a petition purportedly filed in the court against him, he informed police.

The fraudsters then told him to pay ₹ 40 lakh to escape the arrest in the case.

They also enquired about the amount in his bank accounts to which he revealed that he has ₹ 25 lakhs in the Fixed Deposit (FD) and savings accounts.

After obtaining information about the amount in his bank accounts, the fraudsters told him to come out of his house and stay in a hotel by threatening him that the police would pick him up from his house.

Scared, the techie stepped out of his home in the Miyapur area and drove around 15 km to the Ameerpet area on his two-wheeler on Oct 26 and checked into a room at a lodge. Even as he was riding on a bike, the fraudsters did not allow him to disconnect the voice call and were continuously monitoring him, he told the police.

They made him believe that the "verification process" would continue till Oct 28 after which he could make RTGS mode payment to get "released".

As the call with the fraudsters got disconnected at around 4 a.m, on Oct 27, the victim called up the Cyber Crime Police for help.
After being informed about the matter, constable M Ganesh, who received the call told him it was a fraud and that there was no need to panic. The constable then took his neighbor's number and asked him to reach the lodge, he was quoted as saying.

The constable was quoted as saying he kept on speaking with the techie for an hour from his personal mobile so that he did not resort to any extreme step and told him to block the numbers of the fraudsters, as they continued to call him after their call got dropped.

This saved the techie from falling prey to the fraudsters, according to the constable, adding that the techie's neighbor reached the lodge and picked him up.

However, the techie did not lodge any complaint as he did not lose any money, the constable said.

Meanwhile, Indian cyber-security agency CERT-In on Oct 27 shared a list that suggested over a dozen ways in which online scams are being perpetrated by fraudsters in the country, including "digital arrest" to dupe people by stealing their money and private data.

The Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In) advisory said, "digital arrest" is an online scam. In a case of digital arrest, victims receive a phone call, e-mail or message claiming that they are under investigation for illegal activities, such as identity theft or money laundering.