Mumbai Cyber Crime: Man Arrested for Defrauding Rs 19 Lakh from 70-Year-Old Colaba Woman in ‘Digital Arrest’ Scam

A man was arrested from Antop Hill, Wadala, as he was involved in a digital arrest scam. The South Cyber police arrested him for defrauding a 70-year-old woman who resided in Colaba. The woman lost Rs 19 lakh. Digital arrest scams are becoming very common these days. In this case, the fraudsters called the woman and said that her Aadhaar and bank details were linked to a Rs 200 crore money laundering case. They threatened her with links to Dawood Ibrahim, the gangster. The accused, identified as Wasim Ansari, is a native of Jharkhand, who was staging in Antop Hill. He was arrested for receiving money directly into his bank account. He played the main role in this scam.

The victim is a retired private firm employee. She got a phone call from someone posing as Prashant Kumar from a telecom firm in December 2024. The next day, she got a call from another fraudster who posed as Anil Sharma from the Delhi Crime Branch. He made a video call to her and claimed that she was under digital arrest. She was asked to transfer money to be set free. Under pressure, she transferred her life savings in the pretext of a ‘security deposit’.

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After the money was transferred, the fraudsters stopped replying to her. The woman then realised she was duped. She filed a complaint against the fraudsters in January 2025. The investors tracked and recovered Rs 3 Lakh from Ansari’s bank account. The police also suspect that he might have withdrawn more funds from the account or might have routed them to other syndicate members either via hawala or layered bank transactions.