Digital Arrest Scam: IIT Bombay student duped of Rs 7 lakh

An IIT student was duped over Rs 7 lakh by a fraud gang after he was lured into involvement in illegal activities and money laundering.

Fraud cases related to virtual arrest/digital arrest are on the rise. Authorities are constantly warning people against such scams, but still, people are falling into their trap. In a recent case, a student of IIT Bombay was duped at Rs 7.29 lakh.

A man posing as an employee of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) told the student about the digital arrest and trapped him in his trap. 'Digital arrest' is a new method of cyber fraud in which scammers threaten people and extort money by posing as law enforcement officers or government agency officials through audio/video calls.

The 25-year-old IIT student received a call from an unknown number in July. The caller claimed to be a TRAI employee and said that 17 police complaints of illegal activities were registered against the student's mobile number. He told the student that to avoid the number being blocked, he would have to obtain a no-objection certificate from the police and the matter had been transferred to the cyber crime branch.

After this, a man disguised as a police officer made a WhatsApp video call to the student. He asked the student for his Aadhaar number and accused him of being involved in money laundering. He was then put under digital arrest and was threatened not to contact anyone. After this, he asked the student to transfer Rs 29,500 through the Unified Payment Interface (UPI).

The next day, the scammers called the student again and obtained his bank account details. After this, they withdrew Rs 7 lakh from his account. When the student found the money missing from his account, he realised he had fallen prey to a scam. He complained to the police, after which the matter came to light.

PC:Asianetnews