On Monday, the cybercrime police in Mohali intervened to protect an 80-year-old man and his wife from losing ₹1.10 crore to a cyber fraud scheme known as a ‘digital arrest’ scam. The scammers, who impersonated Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials, manipulated the couple psychologically through persistent WhatsApp calls.
The situation was uncovered when the elderly man, a former manager at HMT and the father of a Kargil war hero, attempted to withdraw money from his fixed deposits at the State Bank of India’s Phase-7 branch. The bank manager, sensing something was amiss, promptly notified the police.
When the police arrived at the bank, they discovered that the victim was still engaged in a WhatsApp call with the fraudsters. Understanding that the scammers were eavesdropping, the officers cleverly communicated with the victim by writing messages on paper to alert him to the deception.
“It took us hours to convince the victim that he was being duped. Even after we took him back home, he remained on the call with the fraudsters. We had to finally take away his phone and confront the fraudsters ourselves. That’s when they disconnected the call and the victim realised the truth,” said a police officer.
Police report that the incident started on Sunday afternoon when the victim and his wife received a call from scammers impersonating CBI officials. They falsely alleged that he was involved in a money laundering case connected to a SIM card registered under his name. When the victim refuted the accusations, the fraudsters intensified their threats by bringing in another con artist pretending to be a Supreme Court judge. This impersonator threatened him with immediate arrest but later proposed to stop the process for a payment of ₹1.10 crore.
“As the victim remained in fear, the fraudsters instructed him to stay confined to his room under their ‘supervision’ through continuous WhatsApp video calls. He was ordered not to interact with anyone and to visit the bank on Monday,” DSP Jatinder Chauhan said.
The vigilance of the bank manager and the prompt response of the police thwarted the scam attempt. This is not the first occurrence of such fraud in Mohali. In October of the previous year, a retired SDO fell victim to a scam, losing ₹ 41 lakh after being held in ‘digital custody’ for two days by con artists impersonating CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials. The victim was kept under continuous video call surveillance, which hindered his ability to seek assistance. In another incident, a professor from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) in Mohali narrowly avoided a similar scam thanks to her neighbor’s timely intervention just before she was about to transfer funds.
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