A 26-year-old television actress, currently residing in Mumbai, allegedly lost Rs 6.5 lakh to cyber fraudsters who placed her under ‘digital arrest’ for seven hours, the police said on Friday.
According to the Mumbai police, the actress fell into the trap of the scammers after she attended a series of phone calls, including a video call from “an officer with the Delhi Police” on Monday, who claimed that she had been found linked to multiple bank fraud cases.
She stated in her complaint at the Oshiwara police station that the man in the police uniform threatened her with legal action and to freeze her passport.
According to the police, the actress has worked in several Bengali television shows and some serials in Hindi. She came to Mumbai a few months ago to try her luck in Bollywood and is currently staying in Jogeshwari (west).
The victim said that initially, she received a normal call from a person who claimed to be a mobile service provider executive, who told her that her phone number would be deactivated due to illegal banking activities.
This was soon followed by a WhatsApp video call from the “uniformed officer” with the Delhi Police who asked her to sit alone on the video call, along with her Aadhaar card as part of the “verification process”.
The fraudster asked her to show her the Aadhaar card, and sent her several bogus notices of the Supreme Court, saying that a large number of transactions had taken place in her bank accounts.
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The “uniformed officer” allegedly told her that the government would freeze her passport and she would not be able to go out of the house, said a police officer.
“He further demanded a deposit of Rs 6.5 lakh in the bank account given by them and assured her that the money would be refunded once the verification was over. The woman trusted him and deposited money in the bank account. However, she realised that she had been duped after the ‘True Caller app’ showed the mobile number was a scam,” the police officer said.
The police registered a case on Thursday based on the complaint of the actress on Tuesday.
