Elderly lawyer loses Rs 1.8 crore in ‘digital arrest’ scam, fraudsters pose as CBI officers

Initially, he was contacted on phone by a cyber criminal who posed as a senior CBI officer. The fraudster told the complainant that a forged Aaadhar card had been used in a case of money laundering. He said the name of the complainant and his wife had been flagged in the case. The complainant was told he and his wife had been put under ‘digital arrest’ and that revealing anything about “the case” to anyone would also lead to their arrest. The lawyer was asked to make multiple online transfers to mule accounts, which the fraudsters claimed were government scrutiny accounts.

He was told after the scrutiny of his funds his and his wife’s name will be cleared. He kept sending money as asked by the fraudsters. A while later as he started demanding his money back, he stopped getting responses. He subsequently realised he had been cheated and approached the cyber crime police station.

Cyber investigators have expressed concern that despite extensive awareness campaigns and sensitisation efforts by the government and law enforcement agencies, incidents of digital arrest, online extortion and blackmail continue to be reported. In an advisory issued in May last year, the Ministry of Home Affairs had noted a significant rise in complaints related to intimidation, blackmail, extortion, and so-called “digital arrests.” These scams are typically carried out by cyber criminals impersonating officials from law enforcement agencies such as the police, CBI, Narcotics Department, RBI, and Enforcement Directorate and judges.

Such frauds have been serious enough to be flagged at the highest levels, including by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address last year. As previously reported by The Indian Express, these scams are orchestrated by complex, multilayered syndicates operating across borders. Victims’ money is often funneled into mule accounts and then routed to international cybercrime networks through cryptocurrency channels.