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1h ago

Hyderabad Cyber Police Arrest Bank Staffer and Account Supplier as ‘Digital Arrest’ and IPO Scams Proliferate

Investigators say organised crews rely on mule accounts, forged notices, WhatsApp video calls to force transfers.

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Claiming to be CBI officers, the frauds allegedly put him under digital arrest on the pretext of an investigation, and made him transfer his savings to their suggested bank accounts, said police. (Representational image)
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She said in her statement that the fraudsters told her that bank accounts in her name in Mumbai were being used to fund terrorists involved in the Pahalgam attack.

Overview

  • Hyderabad police arrested Bengaluru bank employee Prathap Kesari Pradhan, accused of opening and supplying accounts later used in nationwide ‘digital arrest’ frauds, after a 60-year-old city resident lost ₹10.02 lakh.
  • In a separate case, investigators detained Bobbari Srinivasa Rao from Visakhapatnam over a ₹43 lakh fake IPO allotment scheme tied to an ‘Axis Security’ WhatsApp pitch, citing his links to 19 similar cases and seizing phones, SIMs, passbooks, debit cards and cheque books.
  • Noida police registered an FIR after 76-year-old Sarla Devi was kept under a so-called digital arrest for weeks and coerced into transferring ₹43.70 lakh through eight transactions following threats over alleged terror-finance links.
  • The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau said a 78-year-old Nizamabad man lost over ₹30 lakh during a 50-hour digital arrest before a friend’s alert to helpline 1930 enabled officials to place ₹20 lakh on hold.
  • Hyderabad reported two APK-based thefts exceeding ₹6 lakh tied to malicious WhatsApp files, as agencies warned against unsolicited calls, phishing apps and investment pitches and advised reporting via 1930 or cybercrime.gov.in, with separate probes noting far larger losses in Kerala and Gurugram.