An 81-year-old businessman from Belagavi, Karnataka, has fallen prey to a ‘digital arrest’ scam, with him reportedly losing over… $15 crore to fraudsters posing as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials, police said.
The senior citizen was targeted over a period of nearly six weeks, during which he received multiple calls and even video calls from the scammers, news agency PTI reported, citing officials.
The scammers claimed that the businessman had received a commission of Rs $5 thousand for money laundering $25 lakh and claimed that complaints were lodged against him for illegal financial activities.
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Police officials said the fraudsters threatened to arrest him in a money laundering case and forced him to share his banking and financial details. They ordered the victim to transfer his money to what they described as a “safe or government account,” and promised to return the amount immediately after the investigation was completed.
Suspicion arose when the victim received no response from the callers and discovered that all the mobile phone numbers used by the scammers were untraceable. He then called authorities last week to report the matter.
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The Cyber, Economic and Narcotics Police Center (CEN) launched an investigation and was able to trace the account to which the money had been transferred. So far only $90,000 were recovered.
In response to the incident, the Belagavi Police Commissioner has formed a special team to track down and arrest those responsible for the scam.
(with PTI inputs)
