Alert SBI Staff Save Senior Citizen From 13-Lakh 'Digital Arrest' Scam

The State Bank of India (SBI) and its staff are often at the receiving end of criticism and the subject of memes such as 'lunch ke baad aana (come after lunch)', but SBI says they have stopped three cases of digital frauds, thanks to alert employees who benefitted from training about cyber frauds given by the SBI.

At AC guards branch in Hyderabad, a bank officer Surya Swathi managed to save a senior citizen from being conned of Rs 13 lakh through 'digital arrest'.

Scamsters had targeted a 61-year-old child specialist, who was a long-term customer of the bank. The senior citizen was told that he was under digital arrest and must not tell anyone about it. The customer reached the bank and told an associate that he wanted to break Fixed Deposits and withdraw the amount.

The associate, Surya Swathi D, noticed that the customer was tense and asked him what was the matter. The customer said he needed to withdraw the amount for personal reasons. Not convinced, the bank associate took him to the manager. Kumar Goud, the branch manager, said that the customer told them that he was planning to buy property. "When asked where he was buying the property, the customer said he had not seen it yet. This made us more suspicious," Ms Swathi told NDTV.

The bank staff said they asked the customer to return with a family member. "We denied to transfer the money for three days," the bank manager said.

On one occasion, the customer entered the branch and did not go to Ms Swathi's kiosk, since she had not allowed the transaction the previous day and fearing that she would ask him questions. He headed to another associate, but by then, the branch staff had been alerted about the elderly customer.

On his third visit, Swathi showed the customer an article on the PM's Mann Ki Baat where he said there is no such thing as a digital arrest. She then connected him to 1930, the national helpline for reporting cybercrime, where he was told that there were others like him who had got cheated in the name of as 'digital arrest'. After three days of torture, the elderly customer was convinced that he was on the verge of being spammed and he hung up on the scamster.

The customer has said that during his multiple visits to the branch, he was on a call with the scamster who kept telling him not to trust the bank staff.

What is 'Digital Arrest'?

'Digital arrest' is a new kind of fraud in which fraudsters tell the target that he or she is under 'digital' or 'virtual' arrest and must remain connected to them over a video or audio call. The target is told that he/she cannot tell anyone else that they are under a 'digital arrest' and the surveillance does not end till the money is transferred to the fraudsters' accounts. Police have stressed in several advisories that there is nothing called 'digital arrest' or 'virtual arrest', but the rise in such incidents shows that the message has not reached a large section. The preferred targets of such fraud are senior citizens who are not very savvy with technology and are easily duped by fraudsters into following their instructions.