Overview
- Tirupati police arrested eight alleged members of an inter-state racket that coerced a 65-year-old into transferring ₹80 lakh, with the money routed through accounts in 14 states and traces found on gaming apps; only ₹2.5 lakh has been frozen.
- Jharsuguda police said they busted a 12-member interstate cyber-fraud gang, seizing 61 bank passbooks, 41 ATM cards and 19 phones linked to mule accounts and online gaming–driven lures.
- Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad cyber units registered fresh FIRs after a retired professor and an elderly couple were defrauded of ₹3.08 crore and ₹2.14 crore through threats of terror-link arrests and demands to move funds for ‘verification’.
- Additional complaints highlight the spread: an 80-year-old Mumbai woman lost ₹1.08 crore to callers posing as senior police, a Kerala resident lost ₹1.51 crore, and a Kanpur woman was duped of ₹6.66 lakh using false claims tied to the Delhi blast.
- Officials warn there is no legal provision for ‘digital arrest’ and urge immediate reporting; probes continue into mule accounts and foreign links, with recoveries still small compared with reported losses, including Karnataka’s ₹31.83 crore case.