{"id":1739,"date":"2025-04-18T09:54:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T09:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/?p=1739"},"modified":"2025-04-18T09:54:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T09:54:58","slug":"retired-army-colonel-wife-duped-of-%e2%82%b949-lakh-in-elaborate-digital-arrest-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/?p=1739","title":{"rendered":"Retired Army Colonel, Wife Duped of \u20b949 Lakh in Elaborate \u2018Digital Arrest\u2019 Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, Apr 18<\/strong> \u2013 In a disturbing case of cyber fraud, a <strong>retired Indian Army colonel and his wife<\/strong> were allegedly placed under a so-called <strong>&#8220;digital arrest&#8221;<\/strong> and conned out of <strong>\u20b949 lakh<\/strong> by cybercriminals posing as officials from the <strong>Mumbai Crime Branch<\/strong>, police officials revealed on <strong>Friday<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The incident unfolded after the complainant received a <strong>WhatsApp video call<\/strong> from a man claiming to be a Mumbai police officer. The fraudster informed the colonel that his <strong>Aadhaar number had been misused<\/strong> to purchase <strong>four SIM cards<\/strong> and open a <strong>bank account<\/strong> involved in laundering <strong>\u20b92 crore<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The alleged conman, while posing as an authority figure, <strong>threatened to probe<\/strong> the couple\u2019s bank accounts and placed them under continuous &#8220;supervision&#8221; for <strong>over two weeks<\/strong>. From <strong>March 23 to April 7<\/strong>, the couple were kept on <strong>video call for up to 11 hours daily<\/strong>, coerced into believing they were being officially monitored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udcb8 Funds Transferred Under Duress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As part of the elaborate con, the fraudster claimed the couple\u2019s <strong>source of income<\/strong> needed verification, and demanded transfers to a specified account. The victims, out of fear and confusion, transferred:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\u20b99 lakh on March 29<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\u20b940 lakh on April 4<\/strong><br>via <strong>RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The scam only came to light on <strong>April 10<\/strong>, when the couple finally approached police after realising they had been cheated. By then, the criminals had already distributed the funds across <strong>22 different accounts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udea8 Investigation Underway<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A case has been registered at the <strong>Cyber Crime Police Station in Mandi<\/strong>, and authorities have succeeded in <strong>freezing \u20b95.58 lakh<\/strong> in suspicious accounts. The probe is now focused on tracing the transaction trail and identifying the fraud ring involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Deputy Inspector General of Police (Cyber Crime), Mohit Chawla<\/strong>, clarified that <strong>\u201cdigital arrest\u201d is not a legal concept<\/strong> under Indian law and warned citizens not to fall prey to such tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u201cDo not fall prey to fraudsters and lose your life\u2019s savings. If you receive any such call or message, contact the 1930 cybercrime helpline immediately,\u201d Chawla advised.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udcf1 A Growing Trend<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This incident highlights the <strong>increasing sophistication of cyber fraud<\/strong> in India, especially targeting elderly or retired individuals using fear and impersonation tactics. Law enforcement agencies continue to urge citizens to stay vigilant and report suspicious activity without delay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, Apr 18 \u2013 In a disturbing case of cyber fraud, a retired Indian Army colonel and his wife were allegedly placed under a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1739","post","has-post-thumbnail","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1741,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739\/revisions\/1741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/duggarsamvad.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}