Hyderabad retiree loses ₹7.12cr in digital arrest scam
An 81-year-old retired businessman from Hyderabad lost ₹7.12 crore after falling for a digital arrest scam.
It all started when he got a call from someone pretending to be a Blue Dart executive, claiming a suspicious parcel in his name contained illegal items like passports and drugs.
The scammers then posed as Mumbai Police, accused him of serious crimes, and threatened him with arrest.
How the scam unfolded and what's happening now
Using video calls and the Signal app, the fraudsters isolated him from his family and pressured him into transferring money—starting with ₹19.8 lakh—to various bank accounts for so-called "verification."
He even had to break his mutual funds and fixed deposits to pay up.
When they demanded more money in December, he finally reported it to the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau.
Police are now investigating, tracing some of the accounts involved, and the case has prompted renewed warnings about such scams.