‘Digital arrest’ for six days: 29-year-old conned of Rs 14 lakh in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: A 29-year-old man from western Bengaluru was held under ‘digital arrest’ for six days and was cheated of over Rs 14 lakh by scamsters posing as telecom and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials. 

The victim Atishay Pareek (name changed), a local businessman, received the call on September 25 at around 2:05 pm. The caller was identified as an operator for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). 

The caller told Pareek that his name was Rajesh Mittal bearing the ID TRA151914. He allegedly told Pareek that a phone number registered in his name was being used for illegal activities and money laundering. The ‘TRAI operator’ told Pareek an FIR (MH1045/0924) was registered in Maharashtra. 

After Pareek told Mittal repeatedly that it wasn’t his phone number, Mittal transferred the call to “CBI in Mumbai”. Then, the caller identified himlef as a CBI officer without divulging his identity. 

“Once the conmen realised that Pareek was from Bengaluru, they created a sense of urgency by telling him that he had to visit CBI in Mumbai the same day for investigation,” an investigator told DH. 

“This method is used by the fraudsters as a scare tactic when they know that for the common man, it would be next to impossible to visit another state the same day.” 

Since Pareek couldn’t travel to Mumbai, he was told an online video interrogation would be held, where his statement would be recorded and he would issued a “clearance certificate”, which would help him in “future investigations”. 

The victim was also told there was an HDFC bank account in his name, which was used to transact $6 million and he would be under 24x7 surveillance. 

When Pareek told the conman that he hadn’t made any such transaction, he was asked to download the Signal messaging app from PlayStore to “record his video statement”. Generally, in digital arrest scams, conmen are known to use Skype, but in this case, they have resorted to Signal, which offers end-to-end encryption. 

Once the “statement” was recorded, the CBI impersonator told him to transfer 80 per cent of the money in his bank accounts to an ‘RBI account’ for verification, which would be credited post clearance. 

Between September 25 and October 2, Pareek transferred Rs 14.57 lakh. On October 3, a case was registered, and an investigation was launched.