Fake Digital Arrest Racket Cheats Bengaluru Woman of Rs 24 Crore

Using cyber technology, an impersonation racket for high-net-worth individuals in India has been exposed as a sophisticated scam in the form of a so-called “digital arrest.”
A network of fraudsters posing as officials from central investigation agencies has allegedly coerced Bengaluru resident Lakshmi Ramamurthy into transferring large sums of money over a period of several months, involving 74-year-old Bengaluru resident Lakshmi Ramamurthy. 

The Karnataka State Cyber Command has uncovered a Rs 24 crore fraud involving her.
Authorities allege that the accused exploited sensitive financial information related to recent property transactions, fabricated false allegations of money laundering, continuously monitored, and psychologically manipulated to create a false sense of legal threat. 

After Ramamurthy approached the ICICI Bank Cantonment Branch to mortgage 1.3 kilograms of gold jewellery in an effort to obtain additional funds, the scheme was undetected until he approached the bank officials. Bank officials alerted law enforcement officials, triggering an investigation that led to the arrest of six suspects from a variety of states, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, and Bihar. 

The victim, Ramamurthy, a former teacher who lived in Dubai and is currently residing alone in Bengaluru’s Shivajinagar neighbourhood, has been deemed to be a lucrative target because she owns properties in Bengaluru and Mumbai, and she is actively seeking to liquidate certain assets for the benefit of her children in the United States. 

Police claim that the fraudulent engagement began in February when individuals claiming to be officers from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) started calling her. She was falsely accused of involvement in a money laundering network and repeatedly threatened arrest and legal action by the callers, who repeatedly threatened her arrest. 

In the process of clarifying her position, the perpetrators escalated the deception through WhatsApp video calls, employing impersonation techniques that were designed to simulate official proceedings as well as reinforce the credibility of the false accusations. Also during the course of the investigation, police were able to seize six mobile phones thought to have been used for coordinating and executing the fraud, providing vital data regarding the network’s communication infrastructure.

This was followed by an extended campaign of coercive social engineering in which the victim was alleged to have been isolated from external intervention and to have been kept under constant psychological pressure through repeated calls and virtual interactions. 

During their conversation, the fraudsters falsely informed Ramamurthy that her bank accounts were connected to a money laundering investigation. The fraudsters claimed that Ramamurthy had been placed under a confidential “digital arrest” and instructed her not to discuss the matter. A number of factors were employed by the accused to convince her that large financial transfers were necessary for account verification, regulatory scrutiny, and fund clearance, including fear, authority impersonation, and fabricated legal consequences. 

A total of Rs 24 crore was allegedly transferred from the victim’s ICICI Bank account between February 10 and April 24 through 26 RTGS transactions involving 23 mule accounts maintained at ten different banks nationwide. Police said the funds were distributed through a layered netwo

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