81-year-old businessman from Karnataka's Belagavi allegedly lost over Rs 15 crore in a "digital arrest scam".
The fraudsters posed as CBI officials, and called the senior citizen multiple times, including video calls, for nearly six weeks.
The fraudsters claimed that the victim had received a Rs 5 lakh commission for laundering Rs 25 lakh and that complaints have been filed against him for illegal financial activities.
Digital arrest cases drop in Karnataka, but cyber crooks evolvingThreatening to arrest him in a money laundering case, they coerced the victim into sharing his account and financial details with them and transferring the money to a "safe or government account".
The fraudster told the man he will get back the amount after the investigation.
However, the victim did not receive any communication from the callers and found all mobile numbers untraceable, following which he complained to the police last week.
The Cyber, Economic and Narcotics (CEN) police station officials, who investigated the case, traced the account to which the money was transferred and recovered only Rs 90 lakh.
(With PTI inputs)