Mumbai Crime News: 70-Year-Old Colaba Woman Defrauded Of ₹19 Lakh In 'Digital Arrest' Scam; Accused Held

Mumbai: The South cyber police have arrested a man from Antop Hill, Wadala, for his involvement in a digital arrest scam, in which a 70-year-old woman from Colaba was defrauded of Rs 19 lakh.

About The Case

The fraudsters claimed her Aadhaar and bank details were linked to a Rs 200 crore money laundering case, threatening her with links to gangster Dawood Ibrahim. The accused, Wasim Ansari, originally from Jharkhand and currently residing in Antop Hill, was arrested on Friday for receiving funds directly into his bank account and playing a key role in the first layer of the scam network.

The victim, a senior citizen and retired private firm employee, received a phone call from someone posing as Prashant Kumar from a telecom company in December last year. The next day, another fraudster, identifying himself as Anil Sharma from the Delhi Crime Branch, contacted her via video call, falsely claiming that she had been digitally arrested. Under pressure, she ended up transferring her life savings to fraudsters under the pretext of a ‘security deposit’.

Later, the fraudsters stopped responding, and the woman realised she had been duped. The case was lodged in January. The investigators tracked down Rs 3 lakh received in Ansari’s bank account. The police suspect he may have withdrawn additional funds and routed them to other syndicate members either via hawala or layered bank transactions