Trail of deceit: How ₹6 crore vanished from a Gurugram woman’s account in minutes

In a harrowing case that lays bare the scale and sophistication of India’s digital crime epidemic, a 44-year-old advertising executive and single mother in Gurugram was duped out of her entire life savings — nearly ₹6 crore — in a cyber fraud that moved money across 28 accounts and 15 states in under two hours.

According to a report by a national daily the stolen funds raced from a luxury condominium in the NCR to a three-room home in Haryana’s Jhajjar, through a co-operative bank in suburban Hyderabad, and into the shadows of India’s burgeoning cybercrime economy.

And this is just one case among 1.23 lakh digital scams — worth a staggering ₹1,935 crore —reported in 2024 alone, nearly triple the tally from 2022.

Investigating the Gurugram case in depth, the daily reported trail using police records, interrogation reports, and field visits across three states. The probe revealed how a mix of low-income citizens, compromised accounts, bank negligence, and digital blind spots allowed the scam to play out with terrifying ease and speed.

“Every victim is made to feel foolish, even blamed,” said the woman, who has written to the Prime Minister’s Office in a desperate attempt to reclaim her stolen funds.

The scam begins in Haryana

On September 4 and 5, 2024, the victim was lured by scamsters posing as law enforcement and told to transfer ₹5.85 crore via RTGS to an ICICI account held by a 26-year-old job-seeker, Piyush, in Subana village, Jhajjar.

In just two minutes, ₹2.88 crore landed in Piyush’s account—and within the next 88 minutes, it was siphoned into 28 other accounts spread across 10 banks. A day later, another ₹2.97 crore followed the same vanishing act. When it ended, Piyush’s balance was ₹2,844.

His distraught parents, unaware of the transactions, claimed their son had been coerced into opening the account. Piyush was jailed for six months and is now out on bail.

Hyderabad: a cooperative bank and a web of fake lives

The bulk of the siphoned money was funneled into 11 accounts at Sreenivasa Padmavathi Co-operative Urban Bank in Hyderabad — where fictitious documents and ghost addresses ruled. At the center of it all: one of the bank’s directors, Venkateswaralu Samudrala, now in custody.

Investigators found most of these accounts belonged to unsuspecting daily wage earners: a tailor, a carpenter, an auto driver—all lured by promises of jobs. One single mother, Sharadha, said she met Samudrala on a bus and opened the account in desperation. She never used it — but ₹41 lakh passed through it before the balance dropped to ₹6,000.

Another, carpenter Ravinder, whose account features in 37 complaints, said he was approached at a tea shop by Samudrala and offered a job. The account of a third man, Sai Krishna Kandi —who couldn’t be traced — processed ₹81.4 lakh, the most in the Gurugram case, and appeared in 46 I4C complaints.

“I opened the account on my brother-in-law’s request. Then the police showed up,” said autorickshaw driver Shivaraju, whose account figures in 14 cyber complaints.

A deeper web, and growing complicity

The Gurugram SIT has arrested three from Hyderabad, including Samudrala and two of his aides, recovering ₹63 lakh in raids. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) flagged the same Hyderabad accounts as involved in 181 complaints totaling ₹21 crore in just three months. Evidence suggests some of the stolen money was converted into cryptocurrency, drawing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the probe.

Samudrala, who was earlier jailed in Gujarat for crypto fraud, faces three FIRs and told police he was imprisoned from September 2024 to February 2025.

Gurugram DCP Dr. Hitesh Yadav said, “The accused has a cybercrime history. We are going to hold the co-operative bank accountable and track the larger racket behind this digital arrest scam.”

Digital arrest scams: A national epidemic

This case is emblematic of a broader, disturbing trend in India’s cybercrime landscape—“digital arrest scams”—where scammers impersonate officials in video calls, coercing victims to transfer funds under threats of arrest or legal action. With banks failing to verify identities, account-holders often unaware, and policing struggling to keep up, crores are slipping away into a digital black hole.

As banks deflect blame and enforcement agencies race to catch up, India’s cybercrime economy continues to thrive — fueled by desperation, data leaks, and digital vulnerabilities. For victims like the Gurugram mother, the cost is not just financial, but personal and psychological.

“We’re silenced by shame,” she said. “And that silence protects the criminals.”