'Digital Arrest': People Are Losing Crores To Scammers. How To Remain Safe
NDTV
"Digital arrests" refers to a type of cyber fraud where scammers impersonate law enforcement officers or government representatives.
A 90-year-old Gujarat man was duped of over Rs 1 crore by fraudsters posing as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers. The conmen placed the senior citizen under a "digital arrest", claiming the old man was involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.According to the Surat Crime Branch, five individuals have been arrested in connection with the scam, which reportedly had ties to an international gang operating out of China.
The mastermind, Parth Gopani, is suspected to be hiding in Cambodia.
"Digital arrests" do not exist under Indian law, clarified Yashasvi Yadav, Special Inspector General of Police for Maharashtra Cyber Department. "Digital arrests are one of the sophisticated scams that even well-educated people, including officers, fall for," he told NDTV Profit.The term refers to a type of cyber fraud where scammers impersonate law enforcement officers or government representatives. They pressure victims into paying large sums of money using psychological tactics and threats over audio or video calls.Cyber law expert and advocate Pawan Duggal explained, "Digital arrest is the phenomenon of trying to put somebody in a sense of fear and panic and thereafter going ahead and extorting money from the said person under some mistaken notion so as to make the said person a victim of a cybercrime."
