Faridabad woman 'arrested digitally', duped of Rs 2.5 lakh

A 23-year-old woman from Faridabad in Haryana was duped of Rs 2.5 lakh and 'arrested digitally' by cyber criminals, police said on Thursday.

According to the police, a first information report (FIR) was registered on Wednesday based on a complaint filed by the woman.

According to her complaint, she received a call on October 12 and the caller introduced himself as a customs officer in Lucknow.

She was told by the caller that a parcel containing a large number of passports and other cards was being sent to Cambodia using her Aadhaar number.

She was advised by the caller to register a complaint with the police or else she would have to appear in a court in Lucknow.

Subsequently, she received a call on Skype and the caller introduced a few men in police uniform.

One of the men in police uniform informed her that an FIR was already registered against her.

In her complaint, the woman said the man in police uniform named a bank official and told her that he was accused of human trafficking and she was associated with him.

"They also cited some complaints in which people have said that they have given money to me to send children abroad and (I) duped them of around Rs 3.80 crore. Later a man posing as a CBI officer told me that I have to pay five per cent of the amount, that is Rs 15 lakh, and when I expressed my inability, he said that they are arresting me digitally," the woman said.

She said the cyber criminals instructed her not to log off Skype. In the meantime, she had transferred Rs 2.5 lakh to a bank account shared by the accused.

"After this, he kept pressuring me to tell him my father's ATM card details. After several days of efforts, when the accused were not successful in taking more money, they told me that now they are ending my digital arrest and I can log out of my Skype account," she said.

A police officer said this was 'a different kind of case of cyber fraud' and that the matter was being investigated.