India, Dec. 24 -- An 85-year-old South Mumbai resident was cheated of Rs.9 crore by cyber frauds who posed as police officers and placed him under a "digital arrest". The senior citizen was about to transfer another Rs.3 crore when a bank manager intervened, alerting his family and the police.

According to the police, the victim, a retired head of department at a college in Vidyavihar, lives in Thakurdwar, Girgaum, with his elder daughter, while his younger daughter lives in the US.

The South Cyber police said the fraud began on November 28, when the man received a call from someone claiming to be a police officer from Panchavati police station in Nashik. The caller falsely told him that money from the bank accounts of a former Popular ...