Anjali's Digital Nightmare: A Woman's Fight Against Bank Failures Amidst a Cyber Scam

Sat Sep 13 2025 11:59:12 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

Anjali, a victim of a 'digital arrest' scam in India, lost millions to fraudsters impersonating law enforcement. Her case reveals significant gaps in banking oversight as she battles to hold institutions accountable.

Anjali, an Indian woman, fell victim to a sophisticated scam that led to the loss of 58.5 million rupees. The fraudsters, posing as authorities, coerced her into transferring her savings, exposing severe deficiencies in her bank's safeguards. As she seeks justice and accountability from several banks, the case highlights the growing issues of cybercrime in India amid inadequate regulatory responses.

Anjali's nightmare began with a phone call that would cost her 58.5 million rupees ($663,390). The caller claimed to be from a courier company, alleging that Mumbai customs had seized a drug parcel she was sending to Beijing.

Anjali, a resident of Gurugram, fell prey to a digital arrest scam - fraudsters posing as law enforcement officials on video calls and threatening her with life in prison and harm to her son unless she obeyed.

Over five harrowing days last September, they kept her under 24/7 surveillance on Skype, terrified her with threats, and coerced her into liquidating her savings and transferring the money. After that, my brain stopped working. My mind shut down, she says.

By the time the calls stopped, Anjali was broken - her confidence shattered, her fortune gone. Her case is far from unique. Government data shows Indians lost millions of dollars to digital arrests, with reported cases nearly tripling to 123,000 between 2022 and 2024.

The scam has grown so rampant that the government has resorted to full-page ads, radio and TV campaigns, and even a prime ministerial warning. Officials say they have blocked nearly 4,000 Skype IDs and over 83,000 WhatsApp accounts linked to the fraud.

Anjali has spent the past year shuttling between police stations and courts, tracing the trail of her vanished money and petitioning authorities - including the prime minister - for help.

Victims say soaring scams, weak bank safeguards, and poor recovery expose regulatory gaps in a country where digital banking has outpaced cybercrime checks, ensnaring people across classes. Anjali says tracing her money trail exposed failures at every level of India's top banks.

Anjali rushed to her HDFC Bank branch, transferring 28 million rupees that day and another 30 million the next. She alleges that the bank failed to detect red flags or trigger alerts for abnormal transactions, even though the amounts were 200 times her usual pattern of withdrawals.

India's banking ombudsman closed her complaint against HDFC, stating that customers bear full loss if the fraud is deemed their mistake.

Over a year after losing her money, Anjali and others petitioned India's top consumer court for deficiency of services by banks. The hearing is due in November.

In this alarming climate of digital scams, accountability remains elusive as victims like Anjali continue to grapple with a system that too often fails to protect them.