Opinion Rise in digital scams: The scammer’s trail

There has been a sharp increase in “digital arrest” scams in India. As per data from the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, the reported digital arrest scams and related cybercrimes have more than tripled, rising from 39,925 in 2022 to 1.23 lakh in 2024, with the defrauded amount growing from Rs 91.14 crore to Rs 1,935 crore. Such scams tend to involve fraudsters impersonating law enforcement officials such as the police, the CBI and the Income Tax Department in order to dupe people. The victims, who are from a cross-section of society, including industrialists, private sector professionals, and senior citizens, are ensnared through fake interrogations on video calls. An investigation in this paper has carefully documented several instances where people have been duped of lakhs and crores of rupees.

The reports in this paper show how money is transferred from the victims to mule accounts that are used by scammers, and then in some cases to other accounts across the country. In one instance, a staggering sum of nearly Rs 6 crore was transferred over many bank accounts in a matter of a few minutes. In another case, there are indications of the stolen funds being used to buy cryptocurrency. Recoveries have been few and far between. In most cases, the bulk of the amount is withdrawn in cash from the mule accounts. In one case reported in this paper, a retired IAF veteran, who was defrauded of Rs 1.59 crore, has till now got back only Rs 16.1 lakh. In another case, the victim, a former deputy nursing superintendent, who had lost Rs 83 lakh of her pension and savings, has not recovered anything.

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The authorities and banks have taken steps to spread awareness and monitor suspicious activities. On October 27, 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his Mann Ki Baat, warned people against digital arrests. “Beware of digital arrest frauds. There is no system like digital arrest under the law,” he said. The Reserve Bank of India has also cautioned against digital arrest scams. Banks have launched awareness campaigns to educate the public regarding the nature of the scams. These efforts need to be ramped up urgently. Governments, banks and the central bank must continue to spread awareness about such scams and educate the public about the modus operandi of the fraudsters. Banks must further tighten the KYC process — as per a report in this paper, the addresses of the mule accounts were “fictitious” in a number of cases. Accounts with large suspicious transactions — for instance, there were 1,960 transactions in one account on one day — need to be flagged immediately and appropriate action taken. Such cases should also be investigated more swiftly.