Hyderabad: Despite numerous fraud cases, cyber fraudsters continue to target vulnerable age groups with attractive figures and messages that mimic official bank communications. A recent case in Hyderabad saw a 60-year-old victim lose Rs 10 lakh in a digital arrest fraud.

The Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police apprehended an employee working at AU Small Finance Bank from Bengaluru, Karnataka, in the case. He was involved in seven cases across India, including two in Telangana.

Police arrested Prathap Kesari Pradhan (32) of Thirumalashettyhalli, Bengaluru. According to police, Pradhan was employed as a Customer Relations Officer in the Accounts Section of a private bank. His role was to make customers open savings and current accounts and maintain customer relationships. He allegedly lured customers by taking their bank account details and paying them a commission for each transaction. He then shared the bank account details with fraudsters through WhatsApp to gain money illegally.

He allegedly shared the account credentials with fraudsters, which were later used for fraudulent transactions.

Police said, a 60-year-old woman lodged a complaint stating that on July 4, she received a call from Pradip Sawant, posing as a police officer from Andheri-East, Mumbai. He informed her that a case had been registered against her involving her Aadhaar card, bank accounts, and money laundering. She was threatened with imprisonment of 3–11 years and a fine of Rs 15 lakh if she failed to cooperate.

The fraudsters connected her on a six-hour conference/video call with persons posing as police and RBI officials and instructed her to arrange Rs 10 lakh to trace the alleged fraudsters.

Under fear and pressure, she withdrew funds from her fixed deposit and transferred Rs 10,02,047 to the account provided by them. She was also sent forged documents, including letters purportedly from CBI, RBI, and ED, along with a fake police ID card.