A 70-year-old retired man from Mumbai’s Mulund area was cheated of nearly ₹40 lakh by a group of cyber fraudsters who intimidated him with threats of a so-called ‘digital arrest’ in a fabricated drug parcel case. The Eastern Region Cyber Cell has registered a case against four accused under cheating and Information Technology Act provisions and has begun investigations.
Police said the complainant, who lives alone in Sarvodaya Nagar, Mulund, is retired, while his two sons are settled in the United States. In December last year, he received a call from an unidentified person claiming to be a courier company official. The caller alleged that a parcel sent to Bangkok using the senior citizen’s Aadhaar details had been intercepted by customs officials and contained objectionable material.
The call was then transferred to another person posing as a cyber cell officer. The man, who introduced himself as Amit, claimed that drugs had been found in the parcel and falsely linked the case to a prominent MLA. He warned the complainant not to speak to anyone about the matter, citing threats to his safety, and pressured him to cooperate with the “investigation”.
Despite the elderly man denying any involvement and stating that he had not sent any parcel abroad, the fraudster continued to intimidate him with threats of arrest and imprisonment. He questioned the complainant about his finances, alleged that he possessed large sums of money, and threatened him with a ‘digital arrest’, claiming that he would be confined to his home, barred from contacting anyone, and kept under constant police surveillance.
Out of fear, the complainant transferred around ₹40 lakh to multiple bank accounts, after being assured that the money would be returned once verification was completed. A few days later, the accused contacted him again, claiming the inquiry was over and no arrest would be made, and promised to refund the amount after deducting two per cent. However, the money was never returned and the accused subsequently stopped responding to calls.
Upon realising that he had been duped, the senior citizen approached the local police and the Eastern Cyber Cell to lodge a complaint. Following verification, police registered an FIR against four unidentified cyber criminals under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the IT Act. Efforts are currently underway to trace the bank accounts used in the fraud and identify the account holders, police said.