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Journalism of Courage
With cases of ‘digital arrest’ rising in the city especially targeting senior citizens, Mumbai Police have prepared a database of senior citizens staying alone and teams are visiting them at home to alert them.
While there is no concept of ‘digital arrest’ in law, fraudsters pretending to be from agencies like CBI and ED call up senior citizens and put them under “digital arrest” on grounds that their account has been used for fraud.
An officer said in the current year till October 2025, 142 cases of ‘digital arrest’ have taken place in the city in which Rs 114 crore has been lost to cyber criminals.
In majority of these cases, victims are senior citizens staying alone and are threatened by fraudsters to not tell anyone about their ‘digital arrest’.
The police initiative has been started from South Mumbai where 627 senior citizens were found to be residing alone in zone 1 of Mumbai Police. Nearly 25 officers and 27 constables visited these senior citizens and alerted them about the ‘digital arrest’ scam and informed them how to protect themselves from it.
“We have also provided them with pamphlets in various languages so that they can read up about it and also alert others to not fall prey to such cyber crimes,” the official added.
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