Gold Sold, Deposits Broken: Gujarat Doctor Loses 19 Crores To 'Digital Arrest'

A senior woman doctor in Gujarat's Gandhinagar was kept under 'digital arrest' for over three months, forced to break fixed deposits, take loans, and blackmailed into paying more than Rs 19 crore to fraudsters, police have found. Police have made one arrest in this connection and are making efforts to recover the money that has been siphoned off through 30-odd accounts.

How Doctor Was Trapped

The doctor said in her complaint, filed last week, that it started with a phone call she received in March. The scamsters used a multi-way approach to target the doctor and convince her that she was in trouble. A woman caller introduced herself as Jyoti Vishwanath from the Telecommunications Department, another caller said he was Sub-Inspector Mohan Singh, three other callers introduced themselves as public prosecutors Deepak Saini and Venkateshwar and notary official Pawan Kumar.

All these callers told the elderly doctor that objectionable messages were being sent from her phone number. They talked the doctor into sharing her Aadhaar card and then said her account had been used for money laundering activities. The multi-way approach confused the doctor, and she felt she was indeed in trouble. This was done through several rounds of WhatsApp audio and video calls.

To draw her deeper into the fraud, the scamsters shared a document with the forged letterhead of the Enforcement Directorate, stating that she had been charged under the Foreign Exchange Management Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The Blackmail

Between March 15 and June 25, the doctor received multiple video calls and was told that she was under watch by cops in plain dress. She was asked to provide information about her property and investments so that the charges against her could be investigated.

She was asked to remain in regular contact through video calls and share her live location at all times. Even when she travelled to Surat for her nephew's wedding, she had to maintain regular contact. Any deviation, she was warned, would influence the probe against her.

Then came the big demand: the scamsters told the doctor that her total assets amounted to nearly Rs 20 crore and they must be parked in some accounts pending investigation. To support this claim, forged documents were shared over WhatsApp. The doctor, by now fully convinced that she was being probed, liquidated fixed deposits, sold gold ornaments, offloaded shares and transferred over Rs 19 crore into 30-odd accounts, the details of which were shared by the scamsters. She was assured that these would be returned after the probe. Eventually, after believing for months that she was under 'digital arrest', the doctor realised she was duped and approached police.

Police Action So Far

Police have managed to arrest one of the suspects, Lalji Jayantibhai Baldaniya, whose account was used to siphon off money and are looking for the others. Dharmendra Sharma, Superintendent of Police for the CID cyber cell, said the focus is to identify the persons whose accounts were used to siphon off the money and the scamsters who blackmailed the doctor and forced her to transfer the massive amount. "The usual modus operandi in such cases is to tell the victims that their phone number has been used to share pornographic material or for drug peddling or money laundering," Mr Sharma said.

Police sources have also pointed to a Cambodia link. Cybercrime syndicates in Cambodia have gained notoriety over the past couple of years for targeting Indian nationals through fake call centres.

A recent analysis by Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs recently found that Indians are losing Rs 1,000 crore every month to cyber frauds originating from Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries, The Indian Express has reported.

What is 'Digital Arrest'?

'Digital arrest' is a rapidly-growing form of cybercrime in which fraudsters posing as law enforcement officials tell the target that he/she is under 'digital' or 'virtual' arrest and must remain connected to them over a video or audio call. They are accused of sharing pornographic material or being part of a money laundering racket. The target, confused and scared, denies any such action and is told that a probe was needed to rule out the charges. The scamsters then ask the target to transfer money to verify her identity and accounts. They are also warned against discussing the issue with anyone. Eager to wriggle out of the situation, many targets transfer huge amounts of money, only to realise later that they had been duped.

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 often panic in such situations. The scamsters then draw them deep into the trap and rob them of their life's savings.

Inputs by Mahendra Prasad