How Techie Held Under 'Digital Arrest' In Hyderabad Managed To Escape?

A 44-year-old IT employee, who was placed under "digital arrest" in Hyderabad by cyber criminals in a fake money laundering case for nearly 30 hours, managed to escape from the crooks with the help of police, without losing any amount.

The ordeal began for the techie from the early hours of October 26 and continued till October 27, with the fraudsters posing as Mumbai police officials, making voice and video calls to him through an instant messaging app with instructions not to disconnect their call, police said on Monday.

They threatened him with arrest in the money laundering case, and demanded ₹ 40 lakh for withdrawing it.

It was only after the call of the cyber criminals got dropped on October 27 morning, the techie informed the Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police Station who told him it was a fraud.

The techie told the police that on the night of October 25, he received text messages saying that his mobile phone number and Aadhar number were found linked to a money laundering case filed in Mumbai, but he ignored the messages.

However, the fraudsters posing as Mumbai police officials made voice and video calls to him on October 26 at 3 am and threatened that he would be arrested in the money laundering case to the tune of several crores.

They instructed him to stay on the call with them continuously as part of verification and not to reveal to anyone about it including his family after which he went into a room in his house. They also sent him fake documents including FIR, warrant issued against him, and that a petition has been filed in the court against him which scared him.

The fraudsters then told him that they would "resolve" the issue by getting his name "cleared" and asked him to pay an amount for it.

They then enquired about the amount in his bank accounts to which he revealed that he has a total amount of ₹ 25 lakhs in the FDs and savings accounts.

After getting information about the amount in his bank accounts, the fraudsters told him to come out of his house and stay in a hotel/lodge by threatening him that the police were looking for him and pick him up from his house.

Following this, the techie stepped out of his home in Miyapur area and drove a distance of 15 kms to Ameerpet area on his two-wheeler on October 26 and checked into a room in a lodge. Even as he drove on his vehicle, the fraudsters did not allow him to disconnect the voice call with them and were continuously monitoring him, the victim told the police.

They made him believe that the "verification process" would continue till Monday (October 28) after which he could make RTGS payment to get "released".

As the call with the fraudsters got disconnected at around 4 am on October 27, the victim called up the Cyber Crime Police for help.

After being informed about the matter, constable M Ganesh, who received the call, told him it was a fraud and that there was no need to fear. The constable then took his neighbour's number and asked him to reach the lodge.

The constable said he kept on speaking with the techie for an hour from his personal phone so that he did not resort to any extreme step and told him to block the numbers of the fraudsters, as they continued to call him after their call got dropped. This ensured that he did not fall prey to the fraudsters, the constable said, adding that the techie's neighbour reached the lodge and picked him up.

However, the techie did not lodge any complaint as he did not lose any money, the constable said.

Indian cyber-security agency CERT-In on Sunday shared a list that talks about more than a dozen ways in which online scams are being perpetrated by fraudsters in the country, including "digital arrest" to dupe people by stealing their money and private data.

The Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In) advisory said "digital arrest" is an online scam. The advisory said in a case of "digital arrest", victims receive a phone call, e-mail or message claiming that they are under investigation for illegal activities, such as identity theft or money laundering.