In a rare and shocking incident which came to fore at Indore, a doctor couple was kept under ‘digital house arrest’ for over 50 hours and was allegedly duped of Rs 8.36 lakhs by persons posing as senior officials of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Mumbai Cyber Crime Branch. According to the police official, the victim has said that they had received a call on March 31, from someone claiming to be from a cargo company who told them that there was a parcel for them, which was stuck in Thailand. The parcel contained five passports, a laptop, MDMA drug and clothes, the man on phone told them. As the complainants expressed ignorance about the parcel, they were subsequently connected with other persons posing as officials of Cyber Crime, RBI and CBI,” ADCP (Crime) Rajesh Dandotiya said.

 

“The fraudsters, posing as investigating officials, sought their Aadhaar ID and bank details and scared them by claiming that their bank accounts had been linked with a money laundering case along with that of missing people, whose organs were illegally retrieved,” he said. ADCP Dandotiya said that the fraudsters later contacted the couple through a video call via Skype and told them not to venture out of home as they were keeping watch on them. “This ‘digital house arrest’ of the couple lasted some 54 hours, till evening of April 2, during which the accused tricked and forced the panicked duo to transfer around Rs 8.36 lakhs in several instalments,” he said. A complaint has been registered and the couple has been asked to submit details of their bank accounts, Skype ID, mobile numbers, ADCP (Crime) said.