Bengaluru woman defrauded of Rs 32 cr in digital arrest scam lasted for six months

PTC News Desk: A 57-year-old Bengaluru woman was defrauded of nearly Rs 32 crore in a digital arrest scam that lasted for over six months, during which impersonators posing as CBI officials kept her under constant video surveillance and coerced her into making 187 bank transfers.

According to the FIR, the ordeal began in September 2024 when the victim received a call from someone claiming to be from DHL, informing her that a package booked in her name from Andheri, Mumbai, contained prohibited items including four passports, three credit cards and MDMA.

Even though she told the caller she had never been to Mumbai, he insisted someone had used her identity and that her case was now being treated as a major cybercrime.

Before she could say anything else, the call was transferred to people pretending to be CBI officers. They scared her by saying she could be arrested, claimed to have strong evidence against her, and warned her not to contact the local police. They told her that the criminals misusing her identity were watching her house. Worried about her family’s safety, she believed them.

The scammers then told her to install two Skype IDs. A man calling himself Mohit Handa watched her constantly through her laptop camera, saying she was under “house arrest”. For two days, he monitored her on video. 

Later, he connected her to another fake officer, “CBI officer Pradeep Singh”, who abused her, threatened her with arrest, and forced her to “prove her innocence”. The victim said the callers seemed to know her phone activity and location, which scared her even more. They told her the only way to clear her name was to share details of all her assets for verification by the FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit) of the RBI. They even showed her fake letters from the Cybercrime Department signed as “Nitin Patel”.

Between September 24 and October 22, 2024, she gave them all her bank details. Then the scammers told her she must deposit 90% of her assets to get cleared. Under pressure, she did it. Later, they asked for another ₹2 crore as a security deposit, and then more money as “taxes”.

During this time, they kept watching her daily on Skype. She even received a fake clearance letter on December 1, 2024, and still went ahead with her son’s engagement on December 6. The stress made her ill for over a month.

The scammers kept asking for more money in early 2025, saying she would get everything back by February. But after delaying repeatedly, they suddenly stopped contacting her on March 26, 2025.