A 31-year-old woman lost more than ₹1.1 lakh in a cybercrime scam after being wrongly accused of downloading child pornography, according to the media. Officers filed a case against the con artist under the Information Technology Act after the resident of West Bengaluru filed a complaint with the Annapoorneshwari Agar police.
The event happened on November 13 when the woman got a call from an unidentified number, the report states. Claiming to be a representative of her mobile service provider, the caller said that illicit content was uploaded to the internet using a SIM card connected to her Aadhaar card. He also threatened to take legal action against her and informed her that her mobile connection would be cut off until she received a police clearance certificate from Mumbai’s cybercrime authorities.
The woman was linked to another person via a WhatsApp call while in a panic. The second caller, who claimed to be a Mumbai cybercrime detective, demanded money and threatened to arrest her while claiming to be validating her bank account information for a “virtual investigation.” She gave the scammers more than 1.1 lakh since she was afraid of the repercussions.
She became suspicious and called the police as the con artists wanted more money. Authorities have warned the public to be wary of scams of this nature and are looking into the situation.
A 79-year-old retired employee in Bengaluru lost ₹81 lakh in a similar incident after falling victim to the “digital arrest” scam. The con artists pretended to be Mumbai police officers and claimed that the victim had sent pornographic communications to a woman.
In his recent Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also warned people of the country of ‘digital arrest’ scams. PM Modi said, “People from every class and age group fall victim to digital arrest. People have lost lakhs of rupees earned through their hard work, out of sheer fear. Whenever you receive such a call, don’t be scared. You should be aware that no investigative agency ever inquires like this through a phone call or a video call.”
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