Ahmedabad: In a major breakthrough, the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch has arrested 17 individuals, including four Taiwanese nationals, for running a nationwide cyber fraud scheme known as a “digital arrest” scam. The scam involved tricking victims into believing they were under investigation by authorities for crimes like money laundering and drug smuggling. Victims were confined to their homes and kept under constant surveillance through video calls, forced to transfer large sums of money into accounts controlled by the fraudsters. The term “digital arrest” refers to this virtual confinement and manipulation.
One of the victims, a senior citizen, was duped for 10 days, during which the gang coerced him into depositing Rs 79.34 lakhs under the guise of processing fees for resolving a fake Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issue. The fraudsters impersonated officials from prominent agencies like TRAI, CBI, and the cybercrime branch, claiming that the victim’s account was linked to illegal activities.
After receiving the complaint, the police conducted a series of raids across Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Odisha, and Maharashtra. They apprehended 17 suspects, including Mu Chi Sung (42), Chang Hu Yun (33), Wang Chun Wei (26), and Shen Wei (35) from Taiwan. These individuals had been in India for about a year, providing technical support for the operation, including developing a mobile app used to transfer money and process payments through online wallets and crypto accounts in Dubai.
Police uncovered call centers designed to imitate genuine investigation offices, from where video calls were made to manipulate victims. Among the items seized were Rs 12.75 lakh in cash, 761 SIM cards, 120 mobile phones, 96 cheque books, and 42 bank passbooks, providing substantial evidence of the gang’s extensive operations. Authorities believe the gang may have defrauded up to 1,000 victims, making this one of the largest cyber scams in recent times.
