An elderly woman went to a Bank of Baroda branch in Ahmedabad feeling very scared and upset. She asked the bank staff to break all her fixed deposits and transfer ₹33.35 lakh to an ICICI Bank account immediately. While talking to the staff, she was also on a video call, clearly following someone else’s instructions.
The bank employees found her behaviour suspicious. She looked frightened and kept talking to someone on the phone. Sensing that something was wrong, the bank manager and his colleagues informed the cybercrime police instead of processing the transfer.
A senior police officer reached the bank and found out that the woman was being scammed through “digital arrest”. A fraudster had called her, pretending to be from the Mumbai Crime Branch, and falsely accused her of being involved in illegal activities. The caller told her that a bank account had been opened using her Aadhaar details for fraud and that her phone number was also linked to crimes.
To scare her further, the fraudster demanded ₹33.5 lakh and threatened her with arrest. Out of fear, the woman believed the caller and rushed to the bank to transfer the money.
The police and bank staff spent nearly four hours counselling her, explaining that no such digital arrest exists and that she was being cheated. Eventually, she understood the truth, and the money transfer was stopped in time.
Thanks to the alert bank employees and quick action by the police, the woman was saved from losing her life savings.
