Gurugram Woman Lost Rs 5.85 Crore in Digital Arrest Scam, Blames Banks for Lapses

The cases of Digital Arrest are increasing rapidly in India. Despite growing awareness about online scams, a shocking case of Digital Arrest has been reported in Gurugram.

A woman from Gurugram has lost ₹5.85 crore in digital arrest scam, and has accused leading banks of failing to stop suspicious transactions. She said the transfers were nearly 200 times more than her regular transactions, but no red flags were raised. She said that if such a huge amount was transferred from her bank account, then an alert must have been raised by Bank.

How the Scam Started

The case began in September 2024 when the victim received a call from someone pretending to be from a courier company. She was told that a drug parcel she had sent to Beijing had been seized by Mumbai Customs. Soon after, people posing as police officers joined the call.

The fraudsters, wearing fake uniforms and showing false IDs on video calls, claimed she was involved in a serious crime. They threatened her with life imprisonment and even warned that her son would be harmed if she did not cooperate.

For five days, the woman was kept under constant watch through Skype calls. She said, “After that, my brain stopped working. My mind just shut down.”

On September 4, 2024, while still under pressure from the scammers, she went to her HDFC Bank branch and transferred ₹2.8 crore. The very next day, she transferred another ₹3 crore.

Victim Questions Banks

The woman later questioned why her banks did not detect anything unusual. She pointed out that banks often call customers if they spend even ₹50,000 on a credit card. “When I withdrew crores from my savings account, there were no checks, no alerts, and no phone calls from the bank,” she said.

She also asked why her relationship manager at HDFC did not contact her, despite such massive transactions from her premium account.

The money first went to the account of a man named Piyush in ICICI Bank. According to her, this account had only a few thousand rupees before suddenly receiving crores. She asked why ICICI Bank did not flag this suspicious activity.

Banks Respond

HDFC Bank, in an email response, rejected her allegations and called them “baseless.” The bank said the fraud was reported two or three days after the transfers, by which time the money had already gone through. Since the transactions were made by the victim herself, HDFC said that its staff could not be held responsible.

ICICI Bank, on the other hand, stated that the account in question had been opened with proper KYC documents. The bank also said that it froze the account as soon as the victim complained. However, the woman alleged that the delay in freezing the account allowed the fraudsters to move her money.

Where the Money Went

Investigations revealed that the money was quickly distributed to 11 different accounts at Sree Padmavathi Cooperative Bank in Hyderabad, which is linked to Federal Bank. Shockingly, eight of those accounts were found to have fake addresses and missing KYC papers.

Police said many of the account holders did not even know that large sums were passing through their accounts. The victim has so far managed to recover only ₹1 crore. She continues to fight her case, demanding stricter responsibility from banks to prevent such large-scale cyber frauds.

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