A Mumbai woman was defrauded of Rs 1.78 lakh and blackmailed in the "Digital Arrest" scam.

MUMBAI : Under the guise of a fictitious "digital arrest" connected to a fictitious money laundering case, scammers dressed as Delhi police officers forced a 26-year-old lady to strip over a video call and defrauded her of Rs 1.78 lakh.

On November 19 and 20, the victim, a pharmaceutical worker from Borivali, was attacked while at work in Andheri. Using several phone numbers, the con artists linked her to a fictitious money laundering case involving the jailed founder of Jet Airways. Under the guise of confidentiality, they threatened to arrest her and told her to schedule a hotel room for a "private interrogation" over video call.

After she consented, the scammers asked her to provide Rs 1.78 lakh so they could "verify" her bank account information. Later, during a video conversation, they forced her to strip under the guise of "body verification." On November 28, the woman filed a complaint at the Dahisar police station after realising the magnitude of the financial and sexual exploitation.

In addition to provisions 66(D) and 67(A) of the Information Technology Act, the case has been lodged under several provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Sections 319(2), 318(4), 204, 74, 78, 79, 351(2), and 3(5). Since then, the Andheri police have taken over the probe.

Invoking the name of the founder of Jet Airways and threatening him with a "digital arrest," scammers used the same tactic to rob the chairman of the Vardhman Group of Rs 7 crore in a similar incident.

Both cases are being aggressively investigated by authorities, who advise the public to be on the lookout for sophisticated cyber fraud schemes.

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