Pune: An 81-year-old Nigdi resident’s timely intervention on Monday afternoon saved his son, a chemical engineer (35), from losing Rs12 lakh in digital arrest fraud, a few days after he participated in a police awareness session on cyberfraud at a senior citizens’ club.Cybercrooks impersonating the Mumbai police crime branch officials had called the elderly man’s son on Sunday, claiming that they had intercepted a parcel containing drugs and five passports booked in his name, and threatened him with arrest. When they told him to share bank details and transfer Rs12 lakh on a video call the next day, the engineer informed his father about it. The senior citizen immediately alerted the Pimpri Chinchwad cyberpolice about the digital arrest fraud attempt on his son around 2.30pm on Monday.The moment the police personnel entered the chemical engineer’s room, the crooks disconnected the video call. “The engineer was about to transfer Rs12 lakh. But, his father’s timely alert saved his money,” an officer from the Pimpri Chinchwad cyberpolice said.The officer said the chemical engineer received a call from an unknown cellphone number through a cellphone messaging app on Sunday morning. The caller claimed that he was from the Mumbai police crime branch and told the engineer about the alleged seized parcel.“The caller told the chemical engineer to download a private messaging app in his and his wife’s cellphones. The crook also threatened them not to disconnect the calls till they were told to do so,” the officer said.He said a person in a police uniform connected with the chemical engineer and his wife after sometime through a video call on that app. The fraud told them that they were under “digital arrest”. He allegedly advised them not to discuss it with anyone else. The bogus officer also said they would get the police clearance certificate after the questioning.“The engineer and his wife were on the video call from 11am on Sunday to 2.30pm on Monday. They were on the call even while sleeping. When their son asked them why the video call was on, they told him that their online meeting was on,” the officer said.The crook allegedly asked the engineer about his bank balance and investments. “When the bogus officer told him to withdraw Rs12 lakh from mutual fund and transfer the amount to a bank account, he became suspicious and decided to inform his father about it. The chemical engineer somehow managed to divert the attention of the crook on the video call and narrated the entire incident to his father,” the officer said.He said the chemical engineer’s father immediately alerted the cyberpolice. A team from the cyberpolice and the Nigdi police went to the engineer’s home and told him that the video call was a fraud.The Pimpri Chinchwad cyberpolice officer said they continuously conducted awareness programmes on cyberfrauds for senior citizens and housing societies. The chemical engineer’s father attended one such session. The elderly man also had the Jyesthanubandh app —initiated by Pimpri Chinchwad commissioner of police Vinoy Kumar Choubey —on his cellphone. “The awareness session and the app helped the senior citizen save Rs12 lakh of his son,” the officer said.
