A 27-year-old woman from Naranpura has become the latest victim of a sophisticated digital arrest scam, despite ongoing awareness efforts. Police reports indicate that fake CBI officials deceived her into believing she was under a “digital arrest,” resulting in the extortion of nearly Rs 5 lakh.
On October 13, the victim received a call from someone claiming to be a representative of a courier company. She was informed that a parcel registered under her name, containing illegal items, had been blocked by customs. The scammers followed up with a video call, displaying a PDF document with a forged CBI signature, further convincing her of the situation’s urgency. They claimed her bank account had received large sums of money and pressured her to verify her identity by showing “birthmarks” via video.
Under immense pressure, the woman deposited Rs 4.92 lakh into four different bank accounts provided by the scammers.
Following this incident, Naranpura police have arrested 12 individuals in connection with the case. Investigations revealed that these fraudsters took a commission of 10-20% on each scam operation.
The arrested suspects include Shankar Chaudhary, Ramesh Chaudhary, Yogesh alias Montu Chaudhary, Rahul Sukeja, Himanshu Gupta, and Ashwini Agrawal from Rajasthan; Shivamran Yadav from Uttar Pradesh; Kiran Naidu and Josem Gondar from Tamil Nadu; Deepak alias Bapu Das from Odisha; Anand Jadhav from Maharashtra; and Sanket Desai from Sabarkantha, Gujarat.
Authorities suspect that the mastermind behind this digital arrest scam is operating from China, managing the entire operation remotely. The Chinese handlers reportedly recruit individuals through Telegram with lucrative offers of high commissions, guiding them to create accounts for depositing fraudulent funds.