An 81-year-old businessman from Belagavi, Karnataka fell prey to a digital arrest scam, reportedly losing more than ₹15 crore to fraudsters impersonating officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), police said.
The senior citizen was targeted over a period of nearly six weeks, during which he received multiple calls and even video calls from the fraudsters.
The scammers alleged that the businessman had received a commission of ₹5 lakh for laundering ₹25 lakh and claimed that complaints had been filed against him for illegal financial activities.
They threatened to arrest him in a money laundering case and coerced him into sharing his bank and financial details, police officials said.
The victim was instructed to transfer his money to what they described as a safe or government account, promising that the amount would be returned once the investigation was complete.
Suspicion arose when the victim received no response from the callers and discovered that all the mobile numbers used by the fraudsters were untraceable.
He then approached the authorities last week to report the matter.
The Cyber, Economic and Narcotics (CEN) police station launched an investigation and managed to trace the account to which the money had been transferred.
So far, only ₹90 lakh has been recovered.
In response to the incident, the Belagavi Police Commissioner has formed a special team to track down and apprehend those responsible for the scam.
