Hyderabad Couple Put Under Digital Arrest for Four Months, Lose ₹64 Lakh

A 71-year-old retired government employee and his wife in Hyderabad were allegedly kept under "digital arrest" for four months and defrauded of ₹64 lakh by cyber criminals who falsely claimed he was being investigated in connection with a terror case.

According to the cybercrime police, the ordeal began when the elderly man received an initial phone call claiming that he had unpaid credit card dues. When the victim told the caller that he did not own a credit card, he subsequently received a WhatsApp call from an individual impersonating an IPS officer.

The impersonator told the victim that his name had come up during an ongoing investigation into an individual identified as Sandeep Kumar in relation to the Pahalgam terror attack case. The caller further claimed that a formal case had been registered against the retired official.

To convince the victim that they were genuine security personnel, the fraudsters repeatedly contacted him and shared specific personal information about his family members. This included details regarding his grandson who lives in the United States, as well as the daily travel route taken by his granddaughter to reach her workplace.

Using the fear generated by this surveillance information, the fraudsters placed the couple under what they termed a "digital arrest." They threatened to implicate the couple's family members in a narcotics case if they failed to follow the instructions given to them.

Over the course of the four-month confinement, the fraudsters coerced the couple into transferring a total of ₹64 lakh before the fraud came to light and was reported to the cybercrime police.