Mumbai: 13 Persons Held as Police Crack Down on Digital Arrest Scam Racket

In the last 10 days, Mumbai Police have arrested 13 suspects across seven districts in a major crackdown on “digital arrest” scams. The arrests were made by special squads that were formed on November 18 to deal with the sharp rise in such cases this year. Until October, the city had recorded 142 digital arrest cases, causing losses of INR 114 crore.

These scams involve fraudsters posing as officials from agencies like the CBI or ED. They target elderly people and claim that their bank accounts are being used for illegal activities. They then force the victims to stay on video calls for hours and call it a “digital arrest”. There is no legal definition for this term, but the method has become common among cybercriminals.

As per reports, 13 teams were formed and sent to addresses linked to bank accounts used by cyber fraudsters. These accounts were used to move money taken from victims. The teams travelled across Mumbai and its nearby areas and also to Solapur, Pune, Nagpur, Satara, and Nashik.

The crackdown led to the arrest of three suspects from Nashik and Mumbai, two more from Mumbai, and one each from the remaining districts. Most of them were mule account users. They shared their bank details with cybercriminals, who then used these accounts to move money through several layers. 

The money was later converted to cryptocurrency and sent out of the country. Mule account holders usually receive a share of the stolen amount. The arrested suspects were identified as Sunil Kashinath Bhujbal (45) from Solapur, Anant Manik Thorat (55) from Junnar in Pune, Vilas More alias Rehan Khan (43), Jayesh Jayant Jhaveri (55) from Virar, Rizwan Shaukat Ali Khan (34), Dhrumil Rambiya (32), Kasim Rizwan Sheikh (32), Jeevan Barapatre (36), Yash Yadav (23), Ashish Ramkrishna Bhusari (41), Mohan Sonawane, Hitesh Masurkar (30), and Ankush More.

Mumbai Police had also begun preventive action earlier this month. Officers created a database of elderly people living alone, as they were the most frequent targets. The effort started in South Mumbai, where 627 elderly residents living alone were identified in Zone 1. Officers visited their homes to warn them and explain how the scam works.