Accused of ‘PFI links’, elderly Pune resident cheated of Rs 1 crore in ‘digital arrest’ scam

Officials have expressed concern that despite broad awareness drives, cases of “digital arrest,” online extortion, and blackmail persist. (Image generated using AI)

An elderly Pune resident was cheated of over Rs 1 crore last month in a ‘digital arrest’ scam by fraudsters who claimed to be law enforcement officers and threatened to arrest him on charges of trading weapons for terrorism and links to the Popular Front of India (PFI), which is facing a probe by the National Investigation Agency.

A First Information Report (FIR) in this regard was registered earlier this week at the cyber crime police station in Pune city by the 69-year-old retiree. According to the police, over the first week of December, he was forced to make four large transfers, totalling Rs 1 crore, to mule accounts based out of Bhiwandi in Mumbai, Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Mahasamund in Chhattisgarh, and Chandigarh.

Threat of 7-year imprisonment The complainant said he initially received a call from a man who identified himself as an officer of the Mumbai police and started asking him about his Aadhaar card number. The fraudster then told the complainant that his name had been flagged in 20 criminal cases, including those related to weapons trading for terrorist organisations, and for links to the PFI.

The fraudsters said the complainant was looking at seven years in prison for his involvement in the crimes. While the senior citizen denied the allegations, the callers claimed that he also faced money laundering charges under an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

However, they said his name could be cleared from the case, for which they claimed to place him under “digital arrest”. The fraudsters then asked the complainant to share his personal and financial information, before directing him to transfer his savings to certain “government accounts” for verification. In four transactions, the complainant transferred Rs 1 crore to mule accounts, and was promised that the money would be returned to him shortly after the verification was complete. When the money was not returned, the complainant got suspicious and started calling the fraudsters. When they demanded Rs 95 lakh more from him, he got suspicious and approached the cyber crime police.

‘Digital arrest’ scams persist despite awareness initiatives The Indian Express has reported that cyber criminals who prey on the vulnerabilities of victims in such scams have used fake identities and impersonated well-known figures and organisations. Police investigation into specific categories of cyber frauds over the last three years has revealed that citizens continue to fall prey to such scams as cybercriminals use social engineering to pull them off.

The issue, highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat address, involves sophisticated cross-border networks. As reported earlier, these syndicates use layers of mule accounts inside India, channelling victims’ money through them before moving it for global cybercrime operations, often via cryptocurrency.