Govt officer loses Rs 19 lakh in digital arrest scam

TUMAKURU: A government officer became a victim of a digital arrest scam for 6 hours in Tumakuru and lost Rs 19 lakh to fraudsters who posed as Mumbai cyber crime police officers.

The victim of the scam is B S Nagabhushan from Upparahalli. The fraudster called him on December 20 as Mumbai Cyber police.

The accused claimed that Nagabhushan’s account was being used for illegal transactions and that there was another SIM card in his name and that someone was threatening others using the same phone number. The fraudsters threatened to ‘seize’ his assets in two cases and ‘arrest’ him if he didn’t cooperate.Then they made a video call and spoke to the victim. They made sure that they looked like real policemen wearing uniforms. They instructed him not to tell anyone about this matter. They made sure that the video call connection was not disconnected continuously from 8.30 am to 2 pm.

Under the pretext of investigation, they inquired about the money in the bank account. Nagabhushan told them about the FD in his wife’s name. Then the accused asked Nagabhushan to transfer money from his bank account to another account, claiming it was for investigation purposes and would be returned later. Nagabhushan transferred Rs 19 lakh via RTGS.

After checking his financial transaction, the accused promised to return the money within half an hour but cut the call. Nagabhushan grew suspicious and filed a complaint at the cybercrime station.