A 57-year-old Bengaluru woman lost Rs 31.8 crore in a sophisticated “digital arrest” scam. Scammers, posing as DHL and CBI officials, falsely implicated her in a crime involving an illegal parcel.
What began as an ordinary workday for a 57-year-old Bengaluru MNC executive quickly spiralled into a six-month nightmare one that drained her life savings, shattered her peace, and left her living under the constant shadow of fear. By the end of it, she had lost Rs 31.8 crore to a cybercrime syndicate that controlled every waking moment of her life, even monitoring her on video calls as she lay in a hospital bed.
A Phone Call That Changed Everything
It all started on September 15, 2024, when she received a call from someone claiming to be from DHL’s Andheri office. He calmly informed her that a parcel in her name purportedly containing credit cards, passports, and MDMA had been intercepted.
Confused and alarmed, she insisted she had never visited Mumbai, let alone sent a parcel. But the caller was firm: her identity had been used, her details matched, and she needed to report the matter to cybercrime authorities immediately.
Before she even had time to think, she was transferred to callers claiming to be CBI officers stern, authoritative, and unrelenting.
Fear Takes Over: ‘You Are Under House Arrest’
The callers told her she was already implicated. It didn’t matter whether she had sent the parcel or not, the evidence was “against her.”
They warned her not to reach out to the police or even her own family. Doing so, they said, could put her son’s upcoming wedding in danger.
Fear for her family swallowed her whole. She complied.
They ordered her to communicate only through Skype. A man calling himself Mohit Handa, claiming to be a CID officer, instructed her to keep her camera on at all times. For two straight days, she lived under their gaze, eating, sleeping, working, all while the camera stayed switched on.
What followed was psychological torture. Another man, pretending to be CBI officer Pradeep Singh, screamed at her, staged fake bribe arrests on camera, and made her believe she was witnessing a real investigation unfold.
They Knew Everything: Calls, Location, Tax Filings
What truly broke her was how much they knew. On September 23, she was ordered to move to a hotel, and they knew the moment she checked in. They knew every call she received. They even had details of her tax filings.
They showed her forged RBI letters and told her she had to deposit 90% of her wealth as a “surety” to prove she was innocent. Terrified of being jailed and of harming her family’s reputation, she complied.
Between September 24 and October 22, she handed over all her financial details. Between October 24 and November 3, she made the first round of transfers, Rs 2 crore.
Wedding Preparations, Panic, and More Threats
Every day, she was threatened. Every device was monitored. And all the while, her son’s engagement date, December 6, was approaching. She begged for relief.
On December 1, the gang sent her a fake “clearance letter.” For a brief moment, she exhaled.
But the demands continued. Another Rs 2.4 crore as “tax.” More “processing charges.” More pressure.
Even when she fell seriously ill and had to be admitted to a hospital, the gang forced her to report daily via Skype, watching her from her hospital bed.
187 Transactions Later, The Truth Hits
She was promised her money back by February 25, 2025. Instead, in March, the scammers abruptly disappeared.
For months, she remained in a state of shock. Only after her son’s wedding in June 2025 did she finally gather the strength to file a police complaint.
“I waited for it to be over… Through 187 transactions, I stand deprived of approximately Rs 31.8 crore,” she told the police.