When the victim expressed an inability to travel due to his age and health condition, the fraudsters allegedly told him that he could appear before a “Crime Branch Court” through an online hearing.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Thirty-five individuals were arrested and 54 held under preventive custody in an inter-State month-long crackdown against cybercrime by the West district’s Cyber Police unit, an officer said on Wednesday (May 20, 2026).

The crackdown was part of investigations into various cybercrimes, including digital arrests, investment frauds, APK file scams, fake dating memberships, and mule account operations, involving funds of up to ₹70 crore.

Hundreds of SIM and ATM cards were also recovered during raids and arrests conducted in April, said the police.

“Multiple dedicated teams worked day and night on technical surveillance, financial trail analyses, digital intelligence gathering and conducted coordinated inter-State raids last month, leading to these arrests, which exposed highly organised cyber networks involved in routing and laundering cheated money through mule accounts, cryptocurrency and layered transactions,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Darade Sharad Bhaskar.

Dramatic escape bid

In one case, the police found a sophisticated mule account and OTP routing syndicate operating from Karampura. “On April 12, a team comprising Sub-Inspectors and head constables raided the premises from where the syndicate was being operated,” as per a statement from the DCP’s Office.

As the team reached the spot, the accused tried to escape by jumping from the fourth floor of the multi-storey building. “However, all accused — Bittoo Chaudhary, Lavish Chugh, Rishi, Arun Singh, Ashish, and Deepak Bhatt — were arrested. They were found to be in possession of ATM cards, SIM cards, banking documents and credentials of mule account holders,” read the statement.

The police recovered 43 smartphones, 313 SIM cards, 184 ATM cards, 51 cheque books, two passbooks and two laptops from the suspects. “Further investigation revealed that 35 NCRP (National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal) complaints amounting to a total of ₹40 crore were registered against them across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh,” read the statement.

Fake dating club

In another operation, a fake dating club membership fraud was busted. “Cyber fraud through fake dating club membership schemes has emerged as one of the most deceptive forms of online fraud targeting emotionally vulnerable citizens,” Mr. Bhaskar said.

The investigation led the police to three Uttar Pradesh residents — Sachin Rawat, Akshay Kumar Baliyan and Kartikey Choudhary. Mr. Kartikey, a Saharanpur-based journalist associated with a digital news outlet, is accused of arranging and supplying nearly 40 mule bank accounts to cyber fraud operators. “He was found to be in touch with multiple syndicates operating from Gorakhpur and Bangalore,” said the DCP.

The case came to light after a man filed a complaint of being defrauded of around ₹1,60,000 in a fake dating application scam.

“The complainant told the police that he clicked a link attached to an advertisement for a dating application. The link led him to a Telegram bot where he was asked to buy a ‘VIP membership’ and subsequently asked to transfer money for various such schemes,” the statement added.

The investigators traced the IP addresses to Africa and a financial withdrawal by one of the accused from Bangalore.

“Investigation revealed that the syndicate had inter-State and possibly international links, with digital trails extending up to Africa-based IP addresses. They used fake Telegram identities and digital platforms to emotionally manipulate victims and route cheated money through mule accounts before converting the funds into cryptocurrency,” said the DCP. The accused were found to be involved in 28 NCRP complaints.

Another case involved the digital arrest of a senior citizen who was led to believe he was involved in a money-laundering case.

Officers followed the money trail and conducted raids in Ludhiana in Punjab and Jamshedpur in Jharkhand. The accused — Ashok Kumar, Suraj Kumar, Deepu Kumar and Vivek Kumar — were arrested for operating mule bank accounts and converting cheated money into cryptocurrency through layered financial transactions.

“The overall quantum of money involved in these cases is over ₹70 crore. Search is on for absconding criminals associated with these syndicates, and further investigation is under way,” the senior officer said.

Published – May 21, 2026 05:51 am IST

Chennai:

Jayanthi, a professor and former journalist from Tamil Nadu, has fallen victim to a sophisticated online scam, losing a significant portion of her life savings. The scammers, posing as police officers during a video call, accused her of money laundering and indulged in intimidation tactics to extort a hefty sum.

The perpetrators, who displayed Jayanthi’s Aadhaar card and claimed her bank account had been used for illicit activities, placed her under digital arrest, restricting her movement and communication. Over three days, they threatened to apprehend her unless she transferred Rs 10 lakh to what they claimed was an RBI account. Only later she realised she had been duped.

“They said an arrest warrant had been issued against me for laundering money,” Jayanthi recounted. “They claimed my Aadhaar and bank account were used for illegal purposes and told me not to tell anyone as they have invoked National Security Act.”

This incident is just one example of a growing trend of online scams targeting unsuspecting individuals across India. According to data from the Centre, a staggering Rs 10,100 crore has been siphoned off from hundreds of victims nationwide in the past two years. Chennai alone has seen losses amounting to Rs 132 crore, says the city police.

In Chennai Geetha (name changed), an insurance professional, lost Rs 4 lakh in a similar scam. She was kept under digital arrest right in her office cabin, with scamsters on a video call threatening her of cops waiting outside her office to arrest her if she did not part with her money.
“Although I was sure I was not involved in any illegal transactions, at that moment my concern was just to avoid any problem and shame. I didn’t think of anything beyond with reason,” Geetha said. A senior citizen, Sarala (name changed), a retired teacher, lost nearly Rs 1 crore in a similar fraud. Both of them shared their losses and the ordeal only after losing hefty money.

These scams, police say, are largely orchestrated by gangs operating from Cambodia, which lure individuals from India into cyber slavery. An estimated 12,000 Indians are currently trapped in these scam compounds, forced to perpetrate fraudulent activities against their own countrymen.

Recently, Cambodian authorities in India called for stricter measures against illegal recruiters in India who deceive individuals with promises of lucrative jobs abroad but instead trap them in these fraudulent schemes.

“For example, recruiters may advertise jobs in Australia but require training in Cambodia, where individuals become ensnared,” said Karthik Tillam, the Honorary Consul General of Cambodia. “I urge the Tamil Nadu authorities to be vigilant and prevent these recruiters from operating within their jurisdiction.”

Chennai Police has urged individuals to remain calm and alert in the face of such scams in the name of FedEx, BlueDart, Telecom or through matrimonial sites. They have asked the public to avoid answering calls from suspicious numbers. If confronted with suspicious calls or demands for money, it is crucial to immediately terminate the conversation and report the incident to authorities, police said. In the case of loss of cash, the police advise victims dialling 1930 immediately for assistance to potentially recover their lost funds.

Gurugram:

A woman was allegedly duped of Rs 1.46 lakh by a person she befriended on a social media platform in a customs fraud case, officials said on Wednesday.

The woman was asked to make mandatory payments to fraudsters posing as customs department officials to receive a gift from abroad, they said.

According to the police complaint, the woman became friends on Instagram with a man, who claimed that he lived in Europe and wanted to learn Hindi.

Some days later, the man said he wanted to send her some gifts from his country. Even though she refused, the man said that he had sent the gift and it will arrive soon, she said in the complaint.

After this, the woman got a call but she could not understand the language of the caller. The woman, then, received a message saying a package from one “Calais Eric” would be arriving for her at the Mumbai International Airport.

“It was also said that the package is ready for delivery. For this, the customs department will have to pay Rs 50,000 as clearance fee. When I refused, I was told that it could not be returned. After depositing the clearance fee, Rs 96,000 were demanded in the name of insurance and income tax,” the complainant said.

After she deposited the amount, they demanded Rs 1.70 lakh more. This is when she approached police, the woman said in her complaint.

Following the complaint, an FIR was registered under relevant sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) at Cybercrime (south) Police Station on Tuesday. A senior cyber police officer said that they are investigating the matter.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jaipur:

Cyber criminals have duped an IIT Jodhpur professor of nearly Rs 12 lakh after being held under ‘digit arrest’ for 12 days.

The cyber criminals, posing as Mumbai Crime Branch officials, told the victim that she was a suspect in a money laundering case.

A parcel belonging to the woman professor had arrived in Mumbai in which drugs, passport and credit cards had been found. Therefore, she will have to remain under surveillance otherwise she would be arrested, the cyber criminals said.

Sub-Inspector Mahendra Kumar of Karvad police station said: “An incident of digital arrest has been reported with IIT Jodhpur’s Assistant Professor Amrita Puri, the 35-year-old wife of Nitesh Anirav and a resident of Patiala, Punjab.

She currently lives in the IIT campus at Jodhpur.

Professor Amrita in her complaint alleged that she received several calls from different numbers on August 1.

“When I received the call, the caller introduced himself as a policeman,” she said.

The caller told the professor: “A parcel of yours has arrived in Mumbai. Drugs have been found in this parcel. There are also many passports and credit cards. You should report it to Mumbai Cyber ​​Crime Branch. The cyber criminal himself transferred the call to the Cyber branch.”

“There the other person introduced himself as the DCP of Mumbai’s Cyber ​​Crime Branch. He said: “You are trapped in a money laundering case. So you have to cooperate, otherwise you will be arrested and sent to jail.” I got scared and kept doing whatever those people told me to do,” the professor said.

The cyber criminals took control of my mobile phone and kept my camera on, she added.

According to the police, the scammers talked about keeping the professor under constant surveillance.

“The cyber criminals took control of her mobile phone, kept the camera on and shared the screen. Not only this, her laptop was also taken under control through Skype app. The professor could not even contact anyone. Whatever the professor did, it was under the surveillance of the cyber criminals. The professor was put under surveillance from August 1.”

However, the cyber criminals shunted all access as soon as the money was transferred 10 days later, i.e. on August 11, when there was talks of financial verification, following which details of all the professor’s accounts and funds were taken.

On Tuesday, around Rs 11,97,000 were transferred through a cheque to one of the professor’s accounts in Yes Bank through Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS).

As soon as the money was transferred to the cyber criminals, they removed access from all communication devices of the professor.

Later, the professor realised that she had been cheated following which she informed the Cyber police station.

Further investigations are underway.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

In a major cyber heist, over Rs 16 crore was cleaned out of Nainital Bank’s Noida branch after its servers were hacked and money was transferred to 89 different accounts.

Cybercriminals entered the bank’s Real Time Gross Settlement, or RTGS, channel by hacking the manager’s login credentials and wiped out Rs 16.5 crore between June 16 and June 20.

The bank’s IT manager, Sumit Kumar Srivastava, went to the cyber crime police station and filed a complaint. The balance sheet was being tallied for June when the heist was noticed, Mr Srivastava said in his complaint.

On June 17, the balance sheet was found short of Rs 3,60,94,020 during a regular audit of the RTGS, the complaint said, adding that the fraud was revealed when they could not match the balance sheet for several days. 

“A case has been registered by the IT manager of the Nainital Bank. He said that about Rs 16.5 crore was withdrawn by hacking the manager’s credentials and the bank’s server. This happened between June 16 and June 20. The money was transferred to 89 accounts. A team has been formed to probe the matter,” ACP Cyber Crime Vivek Ranjan Rai told NDTV.

Noida:

Greater Noida resident who was duped of around Rs 35 lakh by cyber thugs has got back Rs 18 lakh, police said on Wednesday.

The 71-year-old resident of Alpha 2 was defrauded on the pretext of investment in the share market, the police said.

A police spokesperson said the senior citizen approached the local Beta 2 police station on March 3 with a complaint about the Rs 35 lakh fraud.

“An FIR was lodged in the case and the matter was taken up for investigation by the cyber cell. Subsequently, Rs 18,16,245 of the victim was returned to his account,” the spokesperson said.

The police said further probe was underway to recover the remaining amount and trace the accused behind the fake share market app. They also urged citizens to be cautious of such cyber crimes which lure people on the pretext of investment or quick money.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mangaluru:

A retired engineer was allegedly cheated of Rs 1.6 crore by frauds here who asked for “caution money” to ward off a possible probe by a central investigative agency, police said on Thursday.

The accused, posing as employees of an international courier service, claimed that a package the victim sent had incriminating documents and drugs and probe agencies knew of it, they said.

They allegedly asked for “caution deposit” saying it will be returned once the investigation is over, and the victim paid Rs 1.6 crore to them, police added.

The alleged transactions happened between May 2-6 and the matter came to light when the man told his daughter about it.

Police said a case regarding the incident has been registered at the Cyber, Economic and Narcotics Crime Police Station in in Mangaluru city.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

After two Gurugram residents were duped of nearly Rs 2 crore by cyberfraudsters, a marketing professional from Chennai on Tuesday said she received a similar scam call claiming her Aadhaar number was used to send drugs to Thailand. 

In a series of posts on X, Lavanya Mohan detailed the conversation she had with a man posing as a customer care executive from delivery service FedEx claiming drugs were being transported internationally using her ID. 

Two weeks ago, there was news of one man from Gurgaon losing 56 Lakhs to a scammer and another, 1.3 Crores. I got the same call today.

A customer care exec from FedEx will call you and say that your Aadhar card is being misused to send packages with drugs to Thailand.

— Lavanya Mohan (@lavsmohan) March 5, 2024

“Two weeks ago, there was news of one man from Gurgaon losing 56 Lakhs to a scammer and another, 1.3 Crores. I got the same call today. A customer care exec from FedEx will call you and say that your Aadhar card is being misused to send packages with drugs to Thailand,” she wrote.

To make it sound like a legitimate concern, the caller also provided her with fake package details, an FIR number and also their own FedEx employee ID. The caller then offered to connect her to a customs official to solve the issue.

“Ma’am, if you don’t go ahead with the complaint, your Aadhar will continue to be misused so let me connect you right away with the cyber crime branch” Threatening consequences + urgency = scam,” she wrote.

Ms Mohan said the caller even warned her of “rising scams” and offered to help her with the issue urgently by contacting the police.  

“Whats worrying is the level of details he had to provide me. The modus operandi is they connect you to the police who then claim that your ID is linked to the underworld. People are losing their hard-earned money and they can’t be blamed because these scams are growing more sophisticated,” she said.

Warning against falling for such “sophisticated” threats, Ms Mohan said it was highly unlikely that a delivery service would contact you over a serious issue like this, adding that if your ID was being misused the police are likely visit you personally to inform you.

“Anyway, I told the scammer I’d wait for the police to contact me and cut the call,” she said.

Anyway, I told the scammer I’d wait for the police to contact me and cut the call. Here are some more ways you can protect yourself: https://t.co/UVkkiV3Gkg

— Lavanya Mohan (@lavsmohan) March 5, 2024

Similar cyber scams that use highly-detailed information to appear genuine have been reported very frequently across the country over the past few months.

In February, Debraj Mitra, a resident of Gurugram, received a similar call informing him that a package containing passports, credit cards, drugs and laptops linked to the “Mumbai underworld” were sent from Taiwan to Mumbai using his Aadhaar details. 

Callers, posing as a Mumbai Crime Branch officials, contacted him through Skype and made him transfer all his funds into a bank account for “monitoring”. Before he realised he was being scammed, Mr Mitra had transferred a total sum of ₹ 56,70,000 to the bank account shared by the fraudsters.

Mumbai:

 The Maharashtra cabinet on Wednesday gave its nod for a Rs 837 crore cyber safety project to deal with cyber crimes in the state.

The project aims to bring all modern technologies under one umbrella, which will also include a control and command centre, technology-assisted investigation, a centre of excellence, a Computer Emergency Response Team, a cloud-based data centre, a security operations centre, the government said in a statement.

Under this project, people can register their complaints on a 24×7 call centre, according to the decision passed by the state cabinet.

Cyber crimes will be probed with modern technologies and skilled manpower, which can enable them to investigate the case thoroughly and also ensure conviction, the statement said.

In another decision passed by the cabinet, financially-stressed sugar cooperative factories will get loans from state cooperative banks with the assurance from the state government.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)