By Admin 
Delhi Police has achieved important success in a major cyber fraud case. The police have frozen around Rs 1.90 crore out of the Rs 14 crore 85 lakh that was defrauded from an elderly doctor couple. This fraud was done by trapping them in digital arrest.
In this scam, the victims are forced to not come out of the house and talk to anyone by threatening them over phone and video calls.
Doctor couple imprisoned in their home digitally
In this case, 81 year old Dr Om Taneja and his 77 year old wife Dr Indira Taneja, living in Greater Kailash, South Delhi, were targeted. From December 24 to January 9, both were kept under constant surveillance through phone calls and video calls.
The swindlers introduced themselves as officials of the telecom company and law enforcement agencies and said that fraudulent activities had been detected in their name. They were forced to transfer money repeatedly under threat of arrest and case.
Amount sent from Rs 700 to bank account
Police investigation has revealed that the fraudsters used more than 700 Mule Bank accounts to hide the defrauded amount. First the money was sent to seven primary accounts of Gujarat, Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and Uttarakhand.
After this, the money from these accounts was rapidly transferred to 200 to 300 other accounts, so that the police could not know the real route.
Money transferred from Guwahati to Gujarat
Delhi Police investigation revealed that on December 26, about Rs 1.99 crore was transferred to Guwahati, Assam. On December 29 and 30, Rs 2 crore each were sent to Vadodara in Gujarat. On January 2, Rs 2 crore reached the account in Mayur Vihar, Delhi and on January 5, Rs 2.05 crore reached the account located at Nepean Sea Road, Mumbai.
According to Delhi Police sources, this multi-layer mule account network is very complex. Therefore, it is taking time to trace the complete trail of money. With the help of the bank and the Financial Intelligence Unit, the police are identifying and freezing the linked accounts. At present no one has been arrested in this case but the investigation is going on at a fast pace.
Understand what is digital arrest, how to avoid it?
It is important for everyone to know that there is no such thing as digital arrest. This is not a legal process, but a way of cheating that you need to be careful of. Digital arrest is a situation when a fraudster tries to scare and threaten you by pretending to be ED, CBI, court, police or bank officer.
The fraudster will tell you that there is a case registered in your name, your Aadhaar or bank account is being used for wrongdoing, etc. Then he will tell you that you are being ‘digitally arrested’. For this he will keep you on video call for hours. Will refuse to go out of the house, will refuse to talk to anyone.
immediately disconnect the calls of such thugs
Not only this, the fraudster will make you transfer a lot of money. Will give fake threats. If you are not able to understand his scam then out of fear you will even give him money, whereas the truth is that there is no such thing as digital arrest in India. Police or CBI will never make a video call to you, nor will they arrest you digitally. No official investigating agency will ask you for money for investigation.
If you also receive such calls, disconnect the call immediately without fear. Do not transfer any money to the fraudster and immediately inform the police or complain on cyber crime helpline number 1930.