Overview
- The CBI has registered an FIR and booked members of a cyber syndicate accused of extorting a Delhi senior citizen in a ₹10.3 crore “digital arrest” scam.
- Investigators say the fraud began with a courier call and staged video chats with impostors dressed as Mumbai Police and ED officials, leading the victim to move money into multiple accounts from late September to early October 2024.
- CBI officials are now examining the phone numbers used to reach the victim and tracing suspected mule bank accounts that received the transfers.
- In a separate Lucknow case, a pharma professional was kept under a so‑called digital arrest on Signal and WhatsApp for nine days in April and allegedly paid ₹7,20,500, with police freezing ₹1.27 lakh so far.
- Police describe a common playbook that cycles through fake identities from multiple agencies, keeps targets under constant watch, and moves funds through layers of mule accounts that slow recovery efforts.