In an alarming case of cyber fraud in Hyderabad, a 67-year-old woman and her two daughters were subjected to a 17-day ordeal of ‘digital arrest,’ during which they were kept under constant digital surveillance by scammers posing as investigators from national agencies.
This elaborate ruse, which the fraudsters termed a “digital arrest,” led the family to transfer Rs 5.5 crore, only to realize they had been duped.
It all began on November 13 when Bharati Bai Agarwal, a Basheerbagh resident, received a call from a man claiming to be Rahul Kumar from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Alleging that her Aadhaar-linked phone number was implicated in money laundering and drug cases, the caller transferred her to two individuals posing as CBI officers, identified as Saurav Sharma and Ajay Gupta.
The supposed CBI officers directed Bharati and her daughters to connect with them via Skype, where they were informed of their “digital arrest.” To intimidate them, the scammers displayed staged footage of individuals in handcuffs and showed forged documents bearing logos of reputed agencies like the CBI and RBI.