Kochi: For 27 days, a 29-year-old Malayali engineer in California lived as though he was under federal custody, without ever leaving his own room.

He stopped going to the gym, gave up evening games with friends and barely stepped outside. Working from home, he remained virtually confined to his apartment while fraudsters posing as Indian and US law enforcement officers watched over him through continuous video calls.

His parents in Kerala knew something was wrong. But they had no idea their son was being psychologically held hostage thousands of kilometres away.

By the time the deception unravelled, the engineer, a native of Perumbavoor in Ernakulam, had lost $178,916.52 (around ₹1.72 cr) in a sophisticated “digital arrest” scam that stretched across two continents.

The case, now being investigated by the Ernakulam Rural Cyber Crime Police, highlights how a scam tactic that has become notorious in India is increasingly being used to target Indians living abroad.

‘You are under 24-hour surveillance’
The engineer, who moved to the US in 2023 and is currently working as a senior engineer in chip manufacturing, was contacted in early July by callers using what appeared to be Indian phone numbers.

They claimed to represent the Indian Consulate and the local law enforcement in California. Speaking in fluent American accents, they told him that an SBI account had been opened in his name at a Delhi branch and was being used for illegal transactions involving nearly ₹9 crore in black money.

The callers further alleged that fraudulent messages and phishing scams had originated from the account, making him a suspect in an international money-laundering syndicate and demanded to get an official verification.

When the engineer insisted he was innocent and said he could not immediately travel to India because of his employment status, the callers offered he could complete an “official verification” online. That was when the trap tightened.

The fraudsters connected him through continuous video conferences using internet-routed Microsoft accounts. They displayed forged government letters, investigation seals and counterfeit identity cards to make the operation appear genuine.

“They gave him no room to doubt them,” the victim’s mother told Onmanorama.

“They told him, ‘You are under 24-hour surveillance. Your calls are tapped, your passport has been blacklisted, and you cannot leave the country.’ They threatened that if he disconnected or told anyone, federal officers would raid his apartment immediately and send him to prison. In the US, once you are trapped in a legal tangle, everything you built is finished. He was completely terrified.”

Four weeks of virtual captivity
Between July 8 and August 3, he stayed inside his room. Groceries and food were ordered online. The fraudsters then turned their attention to his savings. They told him he needed to prove that his money was “clean” and instructed him to liquidate his assets, open a new checking account with Wells Fargo Bank and convert his savings into cryptocurrency.

Using the Strike mobile cryptocurrency application, he purchased Bitcoin and transferred a total of 2.81 BTC in four transactions to a wallet address supplied by the scammers between July 17 and August 3. The scammers repeatedly assured him that the money was undergoing an “audit” and would be returned after verification.

Meanwhile, his family remained unaware of the full extent of what was happening. “Even while he was trapped under their surveillance, he would call us every day without letting the panic show,” his mother said.

“At one point, he told me to book a family tour package to Switzerland, saying he would cover the three-lakh expense because he genuinely believed his money would be returned. But he kept giving us strange warnings and insisting that we should never hand over our identity documents anywhere without writing down the specific purpose and signing over it.”

₹2-crore loan demand exposes scam
The deception finally began to unravel after the fraudsters demanded more. Having drained his cash balances, company stock disbursements and investments, they pressured him to obtain a personal bank loan of ₹2 cr. They also sought details of his retired parents’ property holdings in Kerala.

His attempt to secure the loan failed because, luckily, his credit-card profile had not been updated. That setback made him think and prompted him to investigate.

He searched online for similar cybercrime cases and came across social media community discussions describing almost identical impersonation scams. He then realised that he had been deceived.

The engineer immediately alerted the Santa Clara Police Department and filed an online complaint with the FBI. Soon afterwards, the scam accounts and communications disappeared.

US authorities indicated that tracing cryptocurrency would be a lengthy process with a low probability of recovery. The family also approached the Home Minister and Kerala Police to see if they could help. Eventually, Ernakulam Rural Cyber Crime Police registered an FIR.

Family suspects data leak
The family suspects that details from the engineer’s financial and travel records may have been compromised during an overseas trip to Singapore in March.

“All we can think about is that his life was spared. Money can be earned back, but the trauma of living in fear for 27 days broke him physically. When we saw his photograph after the ordeal, we broke down as he had become so gaunt and worn down. If our state authorities and the Home Ministry escalate this through central agencies and Interpol, there may still be hope of tracing where this money surfaced,” his mother said.

The Cyber Police are now examining the cryptocurrency transaction hashes and wallet details to determine whether the money was routed through Indian accounts or whether local handlers were involved in the transnational operation.

“Our resources are limited in the case as the crime took place in the US and so far we could not trace any Indian links. However, an investigation is underway,” said a police officer.