Digital Arrest Scam: Ekta Chaturvedi, a resident of Alambagh, fell prey to a digital arrest scam in Lucknow that cost her Rs 1.24 lakh. “Digital arrest” is a deceptive tactic used by cybercriminals to exploit people under the guise of legal pressure or investigative agencies. Typically, fraudsters contact potential victims via phone calls or digitally, then falsely claim that there is an arrest warrant in their name or that they are under investigation. Often, they ask for sensitive information such as personal or financial details, police said.

DCP, East Zone, Shashank Singh, said an FIR has been registered at the Alambagh police station and investigation is underway.

This is how a woman got trapped in the digital arrest scam

According to the victim Ekta Chaturvedi, she received a call on WhatsApp on October 18, 2024, in which the caller was claiming to be a representative of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). He informed the woman that her Aadhaar number is linked to mobile numbers, one of which is valid and the other is unauthorized. He then said that the unauthorized number is allegedly involved in money laundering activities.

 

Next, Ekta Chaturvedi was connected with a man who was pretending to be an officer from the Mumbai Police Headquarters. In her FIR, the woman told the police that the man instructed her to transfer money from her HDFC and Kotak bank accounts to two particular accounts to verify her account balance. Believing those fake claims, the woman transferred Rs 64000 from her HDFC account and Rs 60000 from her Kotak account to the IDs provided by the scammers.

Ekta Chaturvedi said, “When there was no response from the other end, she tried calling those numbers but they were switched off, after which she realised she had been scammed. On October 19, she filed a complaint with the cyber cell in Hazratganj, and then later an FIR was registered on November 3.

These news of digital arrest also came to the fore

In related news, Dr Ruchika Tandon, an associate professor in the neurology department of SGPGIMS, lost Rs 2.81 crore after she was digitally arrested by cyber fraudsters in August 2024. Similarly, renowned poet Naresh Saxena was also digitally arrested by cyber fraudsters in Gomti Nagar in July and was pressured to sing poems of Mir and Faiz, and also asked to confine himself in a room for over one and a half hours.

 

SP of cyber cell alerted

Triveni Singh, former SP in Cyber ​​Cell and cyber expert, cautions to be cautious that no legitimate agency will request your presence on a Skype call for investigation or arrest. There is no such thing as 'digital arrest'.