Digital Arrest Fraud: Scammers Pose As Former CJI DY Chandrachud To Loot Over Rs. 3 Crore From Retired 68-Year-Old Mumbai Woman

A 68-year-old retired woman in Mumbai lost over Rs 3 crore to scammers who trapped her in a terrifying “digital arrest” scam. These fraudsters pretended to be the former Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, along with officials from the CBI and the police.

Scammers pose as DY Chandrachud

She’s lived in Andheri West for 26 years, just going about her life, when out of nowhere, she got a call in August from someone claiming to be with the police. After that first call, the video calls started coming in on WhatsApp, always from new numbers.

On these calls, the person on the other end told her that someone had used her Aadhaar card to open a fake bank account. They said this account was being used for illegal transactions, Rs 6 crore, no less.

When she told them she didn’t even have an account at that bank, they doubled down. They sent her photos of a fake police complaint and official-looking documents stamped with a CBI logo.

It got worse. The scammers threatened to arrest her family if she spoke to anyone about what was happening. They told her she was under 24-hour surveillance and her case was in court.

Then, to make things even more convincing, a man got on a video call, introduced himself as “Judge Chandrachud,” and questioned her. He told her her bail was denied.

Next, he said she had to prove her money was legal. She needed to deposit all her funds for “verification.” They demanded she redeem her mutual funds and transfer everything she had, Rs 3.71 crore through RTGS to various accounts.

Terrified of getting into trouble with the police, she did exactly what they said.

She only realised it was a scam when they started asking for more money. That’s when she finally went to the cyber police, bringing along all the chat logs, call records, transaction slips, and bank statements.

Digital Arrest Scams On The Rise In India

Arrest frauds and other cybercrimes within the country have been on the rise in the year 2022 and 2024. In 2022, the government reported to the Rajya Sabha that 39,925 cases of digital arrest were registered and that the amount defrauded was 91.14 crore in total.

In the meantime, in 2024, they nearly tripled to 1,23, 672. The defrauded sum was multiplied by 21 times to 19,35.51 crore. What is shocking is that some even among the educated are getting victims of it.

Digital arrest is a fairly new type of cyber fraud, which has experienced an acute increase in India within recent years, with elderly people and the first-time internet users being the most vulnerable groups. In this fraud, the offenders pretend to be officers of law enforcement bodies (police, CBI, ED, or even the Supreme Court) and tell the victim that he is engaged in money laundering, drug trafficking, or other illegal activities.

Fraudsters are after the elderly

The similarity in all these is that the scammers are digital arresting the elderly. They are draining huge amounts of funds that are being deposited in their accounts.

The victims receive a letter through phone calls or video calls or messaging apps and are informed that they have been put on digital arrest. The fraudsters push them to remain on the call until endlessly and threaten to arrest them immediately they drop the phone. Through fear and urgency, they cash in on money to either confirm the accounts, pay fines or clear the case. The funds are normally channeled via UPI, bank transfers, or cryptocurrency.

As per the Ministry of Home Affairs, the cases of such cases have been reported in thousands across states and losses have been in the tune of hundreds of crores. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) confirmed several times that the Indian law does not permit any arrest or investigation based on a video call or online payments.

Governments recommend that people should never provide personal or financial information, should verify information on their own, as well as report suspect calls to the cybercrime helpline 1930 or cybercrime.gov.in to the best.

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