Quick action by police helps elderly woman get back ₹17 lakh swindled from her account

While thanking her stars for getting back the ₹17 lakh taken by away by fraudster following a ‘digital arrest’, the 75-year-old Aloysia Pinto from Bejai said the Mangaluru Police acted quickly to get her back her savings that the fraudster had taken away.

On October 23, Ms. Pinto received video call through WhatsApp around 10 a.m. wherein the caller claimed he was from the data protection organisation of the Central government, based in Colaba. By stating that an account has been opened in Canara Bank using her Aadhaar card, the caller said a transaction of over ₹4.5 crore has been made from the account.

“I got scared and said I was innocent. The caller spoke in a way to make me give details of the two bank accounts I have.” The caller made her go to a bank, prematurely close her two Fixed Deposits, and transfer ₹17 lakh to a UCO Bank account in Hassan around 3 p.m. The caller also told her to tell the bank that the amount was for purchase of land.

“Though I have been very cautious with fraudsters, I was carried away with callers way of talking to give away the amount,” she told The Hindu. The fraudster was on a video call with the woman for five hours from 10 a.m., telling her she was under ‘digital arrest’.

Ms. Pinto, living in Bejai for the last six years, confided about the incident to her neighbour. The two then came to the Cyber Crime Police around 6.30 p.m. and Ms. Pinto filed the complaint.

The CEN Police, through the 1930 Cyber Helpline, contacted the recipient bank, which confirmed about receipt of the money. Action was taken by the police to keep the amount on “hold”. On October 27, the CEN Police obtained order of the jurisdictional magistrate and amount got credited to her account. Ms. Pinto received a certificate for receipt of the amount from Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) H.N. Mithun on Friday.