A builder from Ahmedabad was defrauded of ₹1.05 crore by scammers impersonating police officers. They falsely claimed that a case had been filed against him for sending a parcel of drugs to Iran and kept him under digital arrest for three days.

Ketan Patel, 53, a resident of Naranpura, Ahmedabad, received a call on July 3 from a scammer impersonating as a FedEx office. The caller claimed that a passport, debit card, and MD drugs had been found in a parcel in Patel’s name that was on its way to Iran. He further stated that a case had been filed against Patel at the Narcotics office in Andheri, Mumbai.

The scammer suggested that Patel either visit the Mumbai office in person or cooperate in an online investigation. He then insisted that Patel connect via a Skype video call, claiming that many illegal transactions worth crores had been made in Patel’s name across the country.

However, Patel became suspicious and decided to freeze his bank account as a precaution.

The following day, Patel received another video call from a person pretending to be a police officer. The individual asked Patel to transfer money from his bank account to another account for RBI verification. When Patel refused to transfer the funds, he was kept under digital arrest until 11 pm at night.

On the third day, the scammer convinced Patel to transfer ₹1.05 crore from his account to another account for financial verification, assuring him that the money would be returned once the process was complete. 

Patel soon realized he had been duped when he did not receive the money back. He subsequently filed a case, and the cybercrime branch is now investigating the matter. 

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