Hyderabad/Delhi, Feb. 24 -- In the 72 hours to 3 September 2024, a 39-year-old digital marketing executive from Gurugram liquidated her mutual fund holdings and withdrew all her fixed deposits, collating the money into a single savings account held in HDFC Bank. And then she made a fateful transfer.

That transfer- Rs.5.85 crore through six cheques-wiped out all her savings.

It began with a random phone call. The callers said that they were from the income tax department; that discrepancies had been noticed in her tax returns; that there were suspicious transactions in her bank account.

Multiple Microsoft Skype calls followed. On the video, she could see men in dark coats; some identified themselves as cops and supreme court judges. The...