Cyber Criminals held a senior citizen couple from Goregaon hostage in a ‘digital arrest’ for 10 days, siphoning off Rs 1.33 crore, before the woman stumbled upon a newspaper report about a similar scam and approached the police. The cybercriminals isolated the couple from family and neighbours under false allegations of involvement in a Rs 500-crore money laundering and terrorism case. The couple, both retired employees of a leading government bank, lost their entire savings to the fraud. The woman had opted for voluntary retirement (VRS).

During the 10 days of digital arrest, the scammers duped the couple, siphoning Rs 1.33 crore from the woman’s savings accounts. On November 19 the situation escalated when the scammers pressured her to break her R35-lakh fixed deposit (FD), claiming it was necessary until the so-called investigation concluded. When she visited her bank to withdraw the FD, she was asked to return after the state elections due to a staff shortage. Upon returning home, she read a newspaper article about similar cases of “digital arrest,” which raised her suspicions. Acting swiftly, she dialled the 1930 cybercrime helpline and approached the North Cyber Cell of Mumbai Police.