A builder in Ahmedabad lost Rs 1 crore after he fell prey to a 'digital arrest' scam in which some people posing to be from the police and the Narcotics Control Bureau told him that 550 grams of a drug was found in a parcel in his name.
Police officials said the fraudsters appeared to have been keeping tabs on the builder and also cited a Rs 50-crore land deal concluded by him to gain his confidence.
On July 3, the builder got a call from a man who claimed to be a representative of a popular international courier company. The man told the builder that 550 grams of the drug MD were recovered from a parcel in his name and said he was transferring the call to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which had registered a case against him.
In his police complaint, filed recently, the builder said he then got a video call from a man wearing a police uniform, who claimed to be an NCB officer and asked him to record a statement online. The 'officer' also pointed to alleged suspicious transactions in the builder's bank accounts and threatened that agencies like the police, CBI, Enforcement Directorate and NCB would investigate him.
Officials said that, after sufficiently scaring the builder, the man convinced him to transfer Rs 1 crore, returnable in 10 days, to avoid being prosecuted. The scammer also spoke about a recent Rs 50-crore land deal in which the builder was involved to make him believe that he was speaking to someone in law enforcement.
The scammers made no contact with the builder after that and, when his attempts to reach them failed, he realised that he had been conned. He approached the Ahmedabad cyber crime cell recently, over four months later, to file a complaint.
Ahmedabad Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime) Lavina Sinha said a case has been registered and also laid out a list of steps that people can take to avoid falling for such frauds.
"The police or any other agency will always carry out a physical arrest. There is no provision for digital arrest under Indian law. To prevent such frauds, people should follow this three-step process: Stop, think and then take action. If anyone asks for money to be transferred, one must stop and think whether the call is authentic and only then take action. And if money is transferred to fraudsters, people should call 1930 immediately and lodge a complaint," she added.
(With inputs from Mahendra Prasad)
