Cyber ​​thugs tricked the mother of a doctor of SGPGI ₹18 lakh and kept her under digital house arrest for a week in Lucknow.

The criminals intimidated the 69-year-old woman, a retired teacher, so much that she agreed to everything. As she did not know how to do online transactions, she was forced by the criminals to go to the bank and continue to transfer money to their accounts.

The matter unfolded when the woman’s abnormal behavior raised suspicions in the minds of her son and daughter-in-law. When they asked her about it, she told them everything. The doctor lodged a formal complaint with the cyber police station on Friday, police said.

The female victim identified as Shikha Haldar, a native of Panchkula, Haryana, lives in the old campus of PGI area. Her son and daughter-in-law are doctors in SGPGI.

“I received a call on my mobile on November 5th at 10:00. The caller introduced himself as a customer agent of SBI. He told me there was credit card fraud in my name. Before I could say anything to him, he said that my call has been transferred to Mumbai Crime Branch. Then he disconnected the call. After some time, I received a WhatsApp call and the caller introduced himself as an officer of the Mumbai Crime Branch,” the woman told the police in her complaint.

“The caller asked for my Aadhaar number and account details and said that a money laundering case has been registered in my name and my bank accounts need to be investigated. He said he is now transferring the call to the CBI.”

Now another called threatened to send the whole family to jail, the woman said.

“I got scared and gave the criminals all my bank account details. Next he tried to negotiate with me and said that the case could be settled if I gave him money. When I told him I couldn’t transfer the money online, he told me to go to the nearest bank and deposit the money,” she said.

The woman went to a nearby bank and withdrew money from the account and deposited ₹5 lakh in the given account. “Similarly, for 7 days, I deposited approx ₹18 lakh in different accounts,” she told the police.

She also told the police that the callers used to make video calls every hour. “However, on November 12, they called on WhatsApp and asked me to hack all the FDs and deposit them in their account. I suspected and told my son about it,” she said.