Mumbai woman made to strip on pretext of ‘digital arrest’, duped of ₹1.8 lakh — Here's what happened

In yet another incident, a Mumbai woman was made to strip and duped of ₹1.8 lakh by scamsters after they convinced the 26-year-old that she was under ‘digital arrest.’ 

The victim who resides in Borivali East, received a phone call on November 19 where the fraudsters claimed to be Delhi Police officers, NDTV reported.

As per the report, the scamsters trapped the victim by claiming that her name had come up in a money laundering investigation in connection with Naresh Goyal, the founder-chairman of Jet Airways, who is currently in jail. As the conversation followed, the scammers impersonating as Delhi Police officials shifted to video call and told the victim that she was under 'digital arrest'.

Decreeing that under digital arrest she must remain connected to them over the video and should not inform anyone else. The scamsters directed the woman to book a hotel room so that the interrogation could continue without interruption. The woman unable to comprehend what was happening, followed the instructions blindly.

Alleging that a body verification was needed, the scammers asked the woman to strip during a video call. Gaining confidence that the woman was following all the instructions, the scamsters asked her to transfer a sum of ₹1,78,000 after the woman had checked in to a hotel. The fraudster claimed that this move was needed to verify her bank account details.

The victim, who worked with a pharmaceutical company, approached the police and filed a complaint on November 28 after realising the blunder she made. Under relevant sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhit and the Information Technology Act, a case has been registered, and further investigation is underway.

Notably, there is no such thing as 'digital' or 'virtual' arrest. The trend of deceiving people by claiming that the victim is under 'digital arrest' has cropped up recently and is typically used to target senior citizens who are not very savvy with technology. However, cases of young adults being targeted have also emerged in recent times.