An elderly couple in New Delhi’s posh residential area lost as big as an amount of Rs 14,85 cr to cyber fraudsters after spending over two weeks in the digital arrest. Not informing police was their biggest mistake, rued Om Taneja on Sunday after he and his wife lost Rs 14.85 crore following an incident of digital arrest.
Om Taneja (81) and his wife Indira (77), a doctor, were placed under digital arrest for more than 15 days by cyber fraudsters who impersonated officials from telecom and law enforcement agencies. The elderly couple living in south Delhi's Greater Kailash says not informing police about their ordeal was a grave mistake.
"The cyber fraudsters repeatedly threatened us with arrest and serious consequences," Om Taneja told fraud was perpetrated between December 24 and January 9, during which the couple was forced to remain on audio and video calls continuously and coerced into transferring large sums of money to multiple bank accounts in the name of verification, police said.
An e-FIR has been registered and the cyber crime unit of the Delhi Police has taken up the investigation. Police said the couple had returned to India after working for decades in the United States and was residing in Greater Kailash since 2016. Their children are settled abroad. The accused exploited the couple's circumstances -- isolation, age and medical conditions -- to intimidate and psychologically control them.
Narrating her ordeal, Indira Taneja said around noon on December 24, she received an audio call from a person claiming to be a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) official."He told me that my telephone number was being disconnected because obscene calls were made from it and that 26 people had filed complaints," she said, adding that the cyber crooks also accused the couple of being involved in money laundering.
She said she told the caller that the phone number mentioned by him was not hers. "Despite that, he said arrest warrants were issued against me and an FIR was registered in Maharashtra," she said. The caller also claimed that the case was being transferred to the Colaba Police in Mumbai.Soon after, the caller switched to the video mode.
"A man named Vikrant Singh Rajput appeared on the screen wearing a police uniform. I could see police insignia behind him. He told me I was involved in money laundering," the elderly woman said.The man claimed that a bank account was opened in her name at a Canara Bank branch in Mumbai and that huge sums of money had passed through it.
The fraudsters then came up with the "verification process", assuring her that it was the only way to avoid arrest. They also told them not to inform anyone -- not friends, not neighbours, not even their children in the US. Indira Taneja said the threats soon escalated."When our driver came to show an X-ray report, they asked whose voice it was and warned me not to give him any hint, saying he could also be involved," she added.
The fraudsters kept insisting that it was a confidential national-security issue and that breaking secrecy would amount to a serious crime against the country. They showed visuals of SIM cards, Aadhaar cards and other documents to the elderly couple and told them that their identities might have been misused.
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