A 67-year-old retired senior bank manager from Ghod Dod Road, Surat, fell victim to a cyber scam after fraudsters tricked him into believing he was involved in a ₹6.89 crore money laundering case. The scammers, impersonating officials from Delhi Crime Branch, and CBI, kept him under digital arrest for 48 days earlier this year and extorted ₹1.05 crore from him.

The scam came to light after the victim received an awareness message from the RBI about digital arrest frauds. Realising he had been duped, he immediately reported the matter to the cybercrime helpline (1930). Surat Cyber Crime Police have registered a case and launched an investigation.

According to police sources, the victim (name not revealed), who retired as a senior manager from a nationalised bank, received a call on January 11 from an unknown number. 

The caller introduced himself as Rahul Sharma, an official from the telecom department in Delhi, and claimed that multiple complaints had been filed against the victim’s mobile number. To prevent disconnection, he was asked to obtain a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Delhi Crime Branch.

The fraudsters then had asked the victim to talk to Sunil Gautam and Pradeep Singh, who claimed to be IPS and CBI officials. They falsely accused him of being involved in a ₹6.89 crore money laundering case and threatened that he would be taken into custody. 

However, since he was a senior citizen, they said he would be placed under digital custody instead of physical arrest. To intimidate him further, they even sent fake CBI case letters via WhatsApp.

The scammers told the victim that an ICICI Bank manager, Sandeep Kumar, had been arrested and had revealed his name in court. They falsely claimed that his Aadhaar card had been misused in the money laundering case and that he had received ₹68 lakh from the crime. To cooperate with the investigation, he was instructed to transfer all his savings to an RBI account for verification.

Fearing legal trouble, the victim transferred ₹1.01 crore across multiple bank accounts as instructed. He was even made to travel to Bharuch to withdraw and transfer additional funds while keeping a video call active as monitoring.

The fraudsters also sent a fake Financial Transaction Committee Order from the RBI’s Chief General Manager. Finally, they demanded an additional ₹4 lakh as a Confidentiality Bond through Federal Bank, promising that once the Supreme Court judge issued a clean chit, his money would be returned within 48 hours.

During the scam, the victim remained unaware that he was being defrauded. It was only when he received an awareness message from RBI regarding digital arrest frauds that he realised the deception. He immediately contacted the cybercrime helpline (1930) and reported the incident to the Surat Cyber Crime Police, who have then registered a case and initiated an investigation.

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