Mumbai Senior Citizen Loses Rs 64 Lakh in 11-Year Insurance Refund Scam, Digital Arrest
A Mumbai senior citizen was allegedly duped of ₹64 lakh in an insurance refund scam, after fraudsters used the digital arrest tactic to intimidate him.
Mumbai senior citizen loses ₹64 lakh in a fake insurance refund scam involving a digital arrest.
Mumbai: The complainant told police he had purchased four Birla Sun Life Insurance policies in September 2011 through an agent identified as Pawar, after being approached by a woman named Neha Bajaj. He was unable to keep up with the premium payments, and the policies were subsequently closed.
The fraud, according to the FIR, unfolded over more than a decade and involved a rotating cast of callers who used the lapsed policies as bait to extract repeated payments, before escalating to threats of law-enforcement action.
Mumbai: The Reactivation Ruse: 2015 to 2021
The complainant said a man identifying himself as Deepak Rathi contacted him in June 2015, claiming to represent the insurance company and promising to reactivate the closed policies and recover his money. He was asked to deposit funds into various bank accounts on the promise of a refund that never materialised.
He later heard from another individual identifying himself as Iyer, who claimed Rathi had died and that he had taken over the case file. The complainant alleged he continued depositing money into different accounts at Iyer’s instruction, again without any refund being processed.
In 2021, a person identified as Deepak Kumar allegedly resumed the same pattern of contact, making similar promises of a payout. The complainant said he transferred further sums to bank accounts supplied by this individual.
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Mumbai: Threats of ED Action and a “Digital Arrest”
Between 2023 and 2026, two more individuals — identified as Lakhotia and another person using the name Iyer — allegedly began threatening the complainant with action from the Enforcement Directorate, police and other government agencies, according to the FIR. The accused are alleged to have obtained banking details, PAN and Aadhaar information belonging to the complainant and his wife, and used this information to continue demanding money.
The complainant alleged that Rs 63.58 lakh was withdrawn from his bank account through ATM transactions and other means during the course of the fraud, while a separate Rs 51.25 lakh was deposited into his account and allegedly misappropriated by the accused.
Matters escalated on August 16, 2026, when individuals identifying themselves as Vishal Thakur and others allegedly subjected the complainant to a “digital arrest” via a WhatsApp video call, telling him that money linked to him had been routed to a terrorist organisation and threatening him with official action, the FIR stated.
“Digital arrest” scams typically involve fraudsters posing as law enforcement or investigative agency officials on video calls, coercing victims — often through threats of imminent arrest — into transferring funds to accounts described as being under “verification” or investigation.
Mumbai: Case Registered with Cyber Police
The FIR has been registered with the East Region Cyber police, naming Pawar, Neha Bajaj, Deepak Rathi, Iyer, Deepak Kumar, Lakhotia and Vishal Thakur among those allegedly involved across the different phases of the scam. Police are investigating the case.
