The internet and cyberspace are full of digital swindles. There have recently been numerous online dating scams, pig slaughtering frauds, and cryptocurrency scams. These scams include an element of “social engineering,” which refers to strategies used to deceive a victim into making unwise judgments, such as trusting someone they shouldn’t and handing them money.

So far in 2024, Indians have reported losing Rs 19,888.42 crore due to various sorts of cyber fraud, up from Rs 921.59 crore in 2023. This year, authorities have received over 14.41 lakh calls to the national cybercrime hotline number (1930), according to the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), a government entity under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

However, one form of scam is currently widespread in India: digital arrest scams. According to the I4C, an estimated 92,323 cases of digital arrest fraud have been reported in India over the last eleven months, with victims losing a total of Rs 2,140.99 crore. It is crucial to highlight that these figures are likely underestimated, as scam victims sometimes fail to report instances owing to a lack of awareness and a fear of embarrassment.

What is a digital arrest scam, and how has it progressed?

The rise in cyber fraud can be traced directly to the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought a large portion of the population online. However, digital arrest scams took off in India in early 2020 as a variant of courier scams where a scammer impersonating an executive of a courier service such as FedEx would tell the target that delivery under their name is stuck at the airport because it contains material illegal.

They would introduce them to a fictitious customs or security cell official. The target should then be asked to shift money to a so-called RBI-stipulated, surveillance bank account in order to avoid capture, with the smart twist that the amount.