{"id":60939,"date":"2025-04-18T09:54:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T09:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/?p=60939"},"modified":"2025-04-18T10:00:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T10:00:16","slug":"retired-army-colonel-wife-duped-of-rs49-lakh-in-elaborate-digital-arrest-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/18\/retired-army-colonel-wife-duped-of-rs49-lakh-in-elaborate-digital-arrest-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired Army Colonel, Wife Duped of \u20b949 Lakh in Elaborate \u2018Digital Arrest\u2019 Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, Apr 18<\/strong> \u2013 In a disturbing case of cyber fraud, a retired Indian Army colonel and his wife<\/strong> were allegedly placed under a so-called “digital arrest”<\/strong> and conned out of \u20b949 lakh<\/strong> by cybercriminals posing as officials from the Mumbai Crime Branch<\/strong>, police officials revealed on Friday<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The incident unfolded after the complainant received a WhatsApp video call<\/strong> from a man claiming to be a Mumbai police officer. The fraudster informed the colonel that his Aadhaar number had been misused<\/strong> to purchase four SIM cards<\/strong> and open a bank account<\/strong> involved in laundering \u20b92 crore<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The alleged conman, while posing as an authority figure, threatened to probe<\/strong> the couple\u2019s bank accounts and placed them under continuous “supervision” for over two weeks<\/strong>. From March 23 to April 7<\/strong>, the couple were kept on video call for up to 11 hours daily<\/strong>, coerced into believing they were being officially monitored.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcb8 Funds Transferred Under Duress<\/h3>\n

As part of the elaborate con, the fraudster claimed the couple\u2019s source of income<\/strong> needed verification, and demanded transfers to a specified account. The victims, out of fear and confusion, transferred:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • \n

    \u20b99 lakh on March 29<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    \u20b940 lakh on April 4<\/strong>
    via RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The scam only came to light on April 10<\/strong>, when the couple finally approached police after realising they had been cheated. By then, the criminals had already distributed the funds across 22 different accounts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    \ud83d\udea8 Investigation Underway<\/h3>\n

    A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station in Mandi<\/strong>, and authorities have succeeded in freezing \u20b95.58 lakh<\/strong> in suspicious accounts. The probe is now focused on tracing the transaction trail and identifying the fraud ring involved.<\/p>\n

    Deputy Inspector General of Police (Cyber Crime), Mohit Chawla<\/strong>, clarified that \u201cdigital arrest\u201d is not a legal concept<\/strong> under Indian law and warned citizens not to fall prey to such tactics.<\/p>\n

    \u201cDo not fall prey to fraudsters and lose your life\u2019s savings. If you receive any such call or message, contact the 1930 cybercrime helpline immediately,\u201d Chawla advised.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \ud83d\udcf1 A Growing Trend<\/h3>\n

    This incident highlights the increasing sophistication of cyber fraud<\/strong> in India, especially targeting elderly or retired individuals using fear and impersonation tactics. Law enforcement agencies continue to urge citizens to stay vigilant and report suspicious activity without delay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, Apr 18 \u2013 In a disturbing case of cyber fraud, a retired Indian Army colonel and his wife were allegedly placed under a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60939","post","has-post-thumbnail","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60941,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60939\/revisions\/60941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}