Lecturer ‘digitally detained’ for 6 days

RAJKOT: A college lecturer from Junagadh fell prey to ‘digital arrest’ and lost Rs 14 lakh to cyber crooks who impersonated law enforcement agencies and accused him of international drug trafficking.
The fraudsters, who posed as officials of the Mumbai customs department and crime branch, used intimidating tactics and faked urgency to force the victim, Amitabh Mapdar, to confine himself and his wife in their house for six days by remaining live on video calling app Zoom.
Mapdar, a lecturer at Junagadh Government Ayurvedic College sicne the past five years, got a call on June 1 from an unknown person who identified himself as a customs officer in charge of inspecting couriers.
He told Mapdar that a parcel using his Aadhaar card was sent from Mumbai to Taiwan and it contained drugs along with a credit card, Rs 35,000 cash and four kg clothes.
When Mapdar denied sending any courier, the caller connected him to another person who impersonated a Mumbai crime branch officer and told him that he would have to spend 90 days in jail once the investigation into the drugs was launched.
When Mapdar got scared, the caller offered him leniency if he cooperated with the probe. The caller then forced Mapdar and his wife to remain online continuously for six days. The lecturer was instructed to download the Skype app and provide identification proof. Mapdar told police that since he was innocent and willing to cooperate with the investigation, he complied.
The person on Skype whose face was not visible showed a fake ID of Mumbai crime branch and told Mapdar that several bank accounts were opened using his Aadhaar card in Karnataka and Goa and money was transferred from them abroad illegally.
The caller told them to transfer all his funds to an ICICI account for verification by RBI. Mapdar then liquidated his mutual funds and stock market investments and transferred Rs 14.18 lakh in the accounts given by the caller.