Lucknow woman loses Rs. 1 lakh in digital arrest scam

New Delhi, November 4

In a digital arrest scam, a woman from Lucknow was duped of more than Rs 1 lakh by scammers who posed as government officers. 

The police identified her as Ekta Chaturvedi, a resident of Lucknow's Alam Bagh area, who received a call from an unknown number on October 18.

The caller, who claimed to be an official from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), told Chaturvedi that two phone numbers were linked to her Aadhaar Card. However, she told the caller that she had been using only one number. After this, the scamster transferred the call to the so-called Mumbai Police Head Office, saying that she needed to be interrogated.

A second fraudster, who introduced himself as a Mumbai Police officer, told the woman that the second mobile number was being used for money laundering. After falling into the scamsters' trap, the accused kept Chaturvedi under digital arrest for about two hours. After that, they transferred a total of Rs 1.24 lakh from her bank accounts and switched off their phones.

Last week, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs formed a high-level committee to investigate and take immediate action against perpetrators of digital arrest scam, which targets unsuspecting individuals by falsely implicating them in drug and money laundering cases.