Indians lost Rs 120 crore in digital arrest frauds in January-April 2024

In its analysis of trends from January to April, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) found that 46% of cyber frauds reported in this period — in which the victims cumulatively lost an estimated Rs 1,776 crore — originated in these three countries.

National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) data show 7.4 lakh complaints were made between January 1 and April 30 this year, while 15.56 lakh complaints were received in all of 2023. A total 9.66 lakh complaints were reported in 2022, up from 4.52 lakh the previous year.

According to I4C, there are four types of scams — digital arrest, trading scam, investment scam (task based) and romance/dating scam. “We found that Indians lost Rs 120.30 crore in digital arrest, Rs 1,420.48 crore in trading scam, Rs 222.58 crore in investment scam, and Rs 13.23 crore in romance/dating scam,” Chief Executive Officer (I4C) Rajesh Kumar had said while releasing the January-April data in May.

In digital arrest, potential victims would get a call in which the caller would tell them that they had sent or were the intended recipients of a parcel containing illegal goods, drugs, fake passports, or other contraband.

In some cases, relatives or friends of the target would be told that the target had been found to be involved in a crime.

Once they had the target — who would be chosen carefully — in their net, the criminals would contact them over Skype or another video calling platform. They would pose as law enforcement officers, often wearing uniforms and calling from places resembling police stations or government offices, and demand money for a “compromise” and “closure of the case”.

In certain cases, the victims were “digitally arrested”, which meant they were forced to stay visible to the frauds until their demands had been met.

I4C zeroed in on Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia after analysing data on its NCRP, inputs received from states and Union Territories, and some open-source information.

“The cybercrime operations based in these countries employ a comprehensive array of deceptive strategies, including recruitment efforts by exploiting social media to lure Indians with fake employment opportunities,” Kumar said.