A retired director of a multinational company residing in Mumbai has fallen victim to a massive cyber fraud, losing nearly ₹25 crore to scammers posing as police and CBI officers. This case is now considered one of the largest individual cyber frauds reported in the city recently.

The fraud unfolded over a two-month period beginning February 6 of this year. The victim, a senior citizen, was initially contacted via WhatsApp by someone pretending to be from the telecom department. She was informed that her three mobile numbers would be deactivated, and when she inquired further, the caller connected her to another individual posing as a police officer.

The impersonator claimed that there was a money laundering complaint against her, with her mobile numbers and Aadhaar card allegedly linked to the case. The call was then transferred to someone posing as a CBI officer, who threatened her with legal action and instructed her to deposit money into specified bank accounts to avoid prosecution.

Under duress, the victim liquidated shares, mutual fund investments, and even took out a gold loan to comply with the demands of the fraudsters. They also convinced her to open a current account in her name and deposit funds there, claiming that the money would be sent to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and that she would receive a receipt from the local police station.

Despite transferring approximately ₹25 crore as directed, the victim did not receive any funds back. Realizing she had been deceived, she approached the Mumbai police and filed a complaint against the unidentified scammers. The Mumbai crime branch's cyber police station has since launched an investigation and has frozen 31 bank accounts related to the case.