Bareilly: A 14-year-old Tanmay Saxena saved his parents from a sophisticated “digital arrest” scam by spotting a typo on a fake NIA sign, noticing an officer’s uncharacteristic long beard, and hearing through their unprofessional speech. The boy ended nine-hour ordeal by putting their phone on flight mode while they slept.
The Class 7 student’s quick thinking prevented his family from losing their life savings to fraudsters who had convinced them they were targets of a federal anti-terror investigation.
The midnight siege
The nightmare began on April 6 in the Prem Nagar locality of Bareilly. Sanjay Kumar, a local food shop owner, had closed his business early due to a gas cylinder shortage. Kumar received a chilling call from an unknown number. The voice on the other end claimed to be an officer from the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS).
Kumar’s wife, Roshi Saxena, a private school teacher, was allegedly linked to terror groups and involved in a staggering Rs 300 crore fraud. To “process” the case, the family was placed under what scammers call “digital arrest.”
For nearly nine hours, the couple was ordered to stay on a continuous video call, forbidden from leaving their house or contacting the outside world, while the predators monitored their every move and demanded sensitive bank details.
The three fatal flaws
While his parents were paralyzed by fear, Tanmay sat beside them, analyzing the screen like a detective. Having read about such scams on social media and in newspapers, he noticed three glaring inconsistencies that the scammers overlooked.
He noticed the signage behind the “officer” read “NIA,” but the letter ‘n’ was in lowercase a mistake no federal agency would make. Further became suspicious when the man claiming to be a high-ranking official sported a long, unkempt beard, which Tanmay felt was inconsistent with official police grooming standards.
The “officer’s” speech was aggressive and unprofessional, lacking the clinical procedure of real law enforcement, the flaw picked by the boy.
Despite Tanmay’s repeated warnings, his terrified parents refused to believe the call was a hoax. Seeing no other way to break the psychological spell, Tanmay waited until late at night when the tension had exhausted his family. Taking the phone into his own hands, he switched to Flight Mode, instantly severing the scammers’ digital tether and ending the “arrest.”
The following morning, the fog of panic cleared. Realizing they had been duped, the family rushed to the Prem Nagar Police Station to file an FIR against the unidentified fraudsters.
Local authorities have confirmed that a case has been registered, though no arrests have been made as of April 13, 2026. Police have praised Tanmay’s awareness, citing him as an example of how public education on cybercrime can thwart even the most intimidating “digital arrest” tactics.