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The staging is elaborate: a backdrop resembling a police station with officers in uniform and ambient crackle of wireless sets, high-profile names dropped on the go — from IPS officers to celebrities and politicians — and institutions such as CBI, ED, RBI and even the Supreme Court invoked.
And fear is the weapon: victims are threatened with arrest and jail for money laundering, drug trafficking and terrorism — and asked to remain on video or audio call round the clock saying they are under surveillance or face a threat to life.
This is a key pattern that has emerged in police investigations into cyber fraud cases such as “digital arrest”, which was highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last Sunday in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme.
At the heart of it all, police officers in Pune told The Indian Express, are multilayered, multinational syndicates siphoning money from unsuspecting victims to the bank accounts of labourers and farmers — and then funnelling it to international masterminds through the cryptocurrency route.
According to the officers, in many cases, victims initially get calls from persons posing as Telecom officers warning of disconnection, or courier executives saying their parcels were sent to other countries and drugs or contraband were found in them. Sometimes, these calls start with an Interactive Voice Response message to make them more believable, and the callers ask victims to connect with “investigation officers” on video call.
Then comes the theatrics. Cyber fraudsters posing as police officers or sleuths of investigation agencies tell victims that their role is being probed in a serious crime. In the background are sounds of telephones ringing, walkie talkie sets beeping. In many cases, the “police officers” pretend to call their “head offices” on wireless sets and the person at the other end says an arrest warrant has been issued.
Probes have revealed that these fraudsters manipulate victims into sharing sensitive information and later use those to blackmail and extort. “It felt all so real and so legitimate. They show identity cards, letters from agencies with logos, and use all legal jargon. As if they have you under psychological arrest from the beginning,” said a retired engineer in Pune who lost over Rs 70 lakh after he was told that his identity was misused for money laundering.
“You will be arrested in the Raj Kundra money laundering case,” a 73-year-old man in Pune was told by a caller, who posed as an UP police officer. Cyber investigators have reported that online fraudsters misused names of businessman and actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra, Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal, ICICI Bank’s former MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar and NCP leader Nawab Malik — all those who have faced investigations by various agencies.
“This is yet another tactic to add details to the con. Names of well known senior IPS officers have been misused in almost all these cases. In some cases, they have also used names of women IPS officers who have social media presence with YouTube videos of their speeches, etc,” said a cyber investigator.
“The criminals send victims fake letters, arrest warrants from central agencies like CBI, Enforcement Directorate, Narcotics Control Bureau. After this, they are told that all the funds in their accounts are to be sent to government safe accounts, RBI accounts. It is at this point that victims are asked to make large transfers to fraudulent accounts,” the officer said.
“A closer study of modus operandi shows that these scams are carefully planned and are possibly backed by initial financial information about the victims. This also prompts us to explore if there are any data leaks at the level of financial institutions,” said Vivek Masal, DCP Cyber and Economic Offences for Pune City Police.
To use Interpol terminology, these are social engineering cyber frauds in which online criminals exploit a victim’s fears, trust or vulnerabilities in order to obtain money directly or gain confidential information to enable a subsequent crime.
Many Indian cities have seen a sudden spike in these scams over the past two years. For instance, cyber crime wings in Pune City and Pimpri Chinchwad have together registered close to 270 offences of these categories in which victims have lost over Rs 48 crores from March. Victims in the age groups of 30 to 80, from corporate professionals, military veterans and doctors have lost amounts ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3.5 crore.
“We have seen that while these calls are made to a large number of people… those who fail to have basic doubts fall prey to the scams. Not having doubts and suspicions is the biggest vulnerability,” said an investigator.
“Over the last one year, they have started threatening people with new tactics, which now authorities are calling digital arrest. These fake police officers tell victims that they are under surveillance and that they can not contact anyone. They ask the victims to lock themselves in a room at home or hotel and keep the camera on all the time. Even when going to a bank to make the transfers as instructed by the criminals, they ask victims to keep audio calls on,” said the investigator.
“They had asked me to liquidate all my fixed deposits and send all the money to what they called the safe accounts. I was asked to remain on call continuously for 18 hours,” said a doctor in his 40s, who lost around Rs 25 lakh. Another victim was asked to sleep while keeping the camera on, an officer said.
Investigations in the past have revealed that the siphoned money lands in hundreds of accounts opened in the name of farmers, small-time traders and businesses, and labourers. They form the first layer of the racket. These account holders receive a fixed amount per month or a miniscule percentage of the transactions.
The next layer is of cyber foot soldiers who help these people open bank accounts and maintain them. They receive higher cuts in the operation. The third layer of operatives links the first two to masterminds abroad. This layer converts the siphoned funds to cryptocurrency to be sent to wallets of the masterminds.
Sometimes hawala channels are also used, an investigator said. The masterminds of these cons and also the operatives who make the online calls are based abroad, some in the Middle East and some in South East Asia.
“To counter highly organised cyber crime operations, police entities and law enforcement agencies in India are receiving help and resources from central government authorities. One effective tool in our hand working on continued awareness among people about cyber hygiene and sensitisation about online crimes,” said DCP Masal.
