Lucknow : A 70-year-old retired merchant navy officer and his 100-year-old father fell victim to a digital arrest scam, losing a whopping ₹1.29 crore to fraudsters posing as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials. According to the FIR, the ordeal began on August 20 when the complainant’s father Hardev Singh received a call from an unknown number wherein the caller introduced himself as Alok Singh from the CBI and said that an arrest warrant had been issued against him for money laundering.
To make the claim appear legitimate, caller sent a picture of a digital arrest notice via WhatsApp, warning that Hardev Singh had already been “taken into virtual custody.” The elderly man complied when the scammers demanded personal details, including his bank account information, for verification.
When I returned home and learned about the call, I too panicked. Fear of an arrest warrant pushed me into following the fraudsters’ instructions. Over the next few days, between August 21 and 26, I made multiple RTGS transfers from our joint bank account in Lucknow to various accounts in Gujarat and Maharashtra, stated Surya Pal in the FIR.
The payments, disguised as verification deposits, included ₹32 lakh to Ujahs Enterprise in Bhavnagar, ₹45 lakh to an account in Panaji and another ₹52 lakh to accounts in Jalgaon under the name Shree Nath Traders. By the time the family realized they had been conned, ₹1.29 crore had vanished. “He kept assuring us that the money will be returned by evening, Singh mentioned in his FIR.
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