The Gujarat Police have apprehended 17 individuals, including four Taiwanese nationals, for allegedly orchestrating a nationwide digital arrest racket. This scam targeted elderly citizens, convincing them they were under investigation for serious offenses like money laundering or drug smuggling, and pressured them to pay money to avoid these fictitious charges.
The Taiwanese suspects—Mu Chi Sang (42), Chang Hu Yun (33), Wang Chun Wei (26), and Shen Wei (35)—were arrested following coordinated raids in Delhi and Bengaluru, which were based on technical analysis and surveillance. According to police reports, these individuals were pivotal in overseeing the operations, managing rooted mobile phones, and coordinating the scam’s logistics. The remaining 13 arrested were from various states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Rajasthan.
Sharad Singhal, joint commissioner of the Crime Branch (Ahmedabad), described this as one of the largest scams of its kind in recent history. The Taiwanese nationals had reportedly been visiting India for over a year, providing the gang with mobile apps and technical support to facilitate the movement of stolen funds between accounts.
Police highlighted that the Taiwanese played a crucial role in the scam. They supplied rooted mobile phones and established the necessary infrastructure. Evidence suggests their operations extended beyond India, with travel to countries like Cambodia, Dubai, and China.
Saif Haider, one of the arrested Indians, allegedly assisted the Taiwanese in their operations by overseeing the installation of technical equipment to access one-time passwords (OTPs) and bank accounts.
Authorities recovered significant evidence during the raids, including 761 SIM cards, 120 mobile phones, 96 chequebooks, and 92 debit and credit cards, along with various other electronic devices used in the scam. In a particularly alarming case, the gang digitally arrested an elderly citizen for 10 days, monitoring him through video calls and coercing him into depositing Rs79.34 lakh as a refundable processing fee to resolve a fabricated issue with the Reserve Bank of India.