Kochi: Just after noon on December 3, the Vypin-Murikkumpadam branch of South Indian Bank was unusually calm. There was not much rush at the counters, no queue spilling into the lobby. Inside his cabin, Branch Manager Reswin R Nath was going about a routine workday when a familiar face appeared at his door, carrying a cheque leaf and an unmistakable look of fear. 

The 64-year-old man was one of the branch’s long-time and “prime” customers. Reswin had known him for a few years. “I have never seen him panicking or tense. He is usually relaxed, always smiling,” recalled Reswin while speaking to Onmanorama.

But that afternoon, the customer, who was sweaty and nervous, asked him for immediate help to transfer ₹4.5 lakh from his account through RTGS. He appeared panicking, insisted the transfer be done at once, and left the cabin quickly after submitting the request.

Reswin felt that something was not right about the whole incident. When Reswin examined the RTGS form, more red flags appeared. The beneficiary account was with a bank in North India. The customer had made multiple errors while writing the account details, which was unusual for someone meticulous with paperwork. More importantly, the man had never made a transaction of this size before, let alone to an unfamiliar out-of-state account. 

“The combination of his behaviour and the transaction details made me suspicious,” Reswin said. He stepped out to look for the customer. Outside, under the harsh afternoon sun, he spotted the elderly man sitting inside his car, apparently on a phone call. Reswin walked up and gently asked whether the beneficiary was someone he trusted. 

The man paused for a while. He put his phone down inside the car, stepped out, and spoke quietly. “No, I don’t trust them. But they have kept me under ‘Digital Arrest’ since this morning. So, I have to do this,” he said. 

At that moment, Reswin knew his instinct had been right. He immediately asked the customer to come back inside the bank. In the safety of his cabin, Reswin told him bluntly that there was no such thing as a “Digital Arrest” and that he was being targeted in a cyber fraud scam. To reassure him, he pulled up news reports and RBI awareness videos on YouTube, explaining how scammers impersonate law enforcement agencies. Only then did the customer slowly begin to open up. 

He revealed that since 9 am, fraudsters posing as Mumbai Police officials had kept him under constant watch through a WhatsApp video call. The visuals were convincing - police uniforms, a police station-looking office setup, and stern warnings. The callers told him that a large sum of money obtained through fraud would soon be credited to his account and that a criminal case would be registered against him once it arrived.

To “avoid arrest,” they instructed him to transfer all the money currently in his bank accounts to an account specified by them. 

Terrified, the man had already transferred ₹78,000 from an account he held with another bank through UPI. After that, still under what he believed was police surveillance, he came to the South Indian Bank branch in Vypin to move the remaining ₹4.5 lakh.

“All this time, they kept him on a video call. Even when he first came to my cabin, he was on WhatsApp. That’s why he put the phone inside the car before telling me about the digital arrest,” Reswin said. 

As Reswin was explaining the scam to him, the calls kept coming. The fraudsters demanded to know why he had gone to the bank instead of transferring the money online. “When I asked him to block the number, the calls resumed, this time from another number. They were not ready to give up,” Reswin recalled.

He then asked the customer to immediately call the national cybercrime helpline 1930. The cyber police spoke to him, confirmed that he was being scammed, and explained the modus operandi in detail. A complaint was registered with all relevant information. 

The bank moved quickly to secure his funds. His account was e-locked to prevent any unauthorised transactions, and staff also assisted him in filing a complaint regarding the ₹78,000 already lost to the scammers. 

Looking back, Reswin believed the outcome could have been very different. “Maybe because he knew me personally, he came straight to my cabin. Otherwise, he might have gone to a customer counter. The staff there may not have noticed his tension, and the money could have been transferred. It could have ended as another silent cybercrime,” he said. 
Ironically, the customer’s habit of relying on in-person banking rather than internet transactions helped save him. 

Reswin also pointed out how well-prepared the scammers were. “They initially spoke to him in Hindi. When he said he couldn’t understand, they arranged a Malayalam translator. Their narrative is very convincing,” Reswin said. 

He credited training sessions conducted by the bank on identifying suspicious transactions and customer behaviour for helping him act in time. 
“The customer thanked us for saving his money. But he requested not to disclose his identity to maintain privacy,” Reswin said. 
“We are now telling all our customers that if they feel something is wrong, don’t panic, don’t obey strangers, and seek help from the bank and the police immediately,” he said.