‘Digital arrest’ is a new and innovative tactic employed by cybercriminals to defraud gullible victims and extort money.
The Union Home Ministry has issued an alert to police departments in states and Union Territories amid the surge in ‘Digital Arrest’ trend, a novel cybercrime tactic wherein conmen impersonating law enforcement officers manipulate victims by threatening them with arrest and prosecution in order to extort money.
What is ‘Digital Arrest’?
‘Digital arrest’ is a new and innovative tactic employed by cybercriminals to defraud gullible victims and extort money. The modus operandi in this cybercrime method is that fraudsters pose as law enforcement officials such as police, Enforcement Directorate, CBI, among others, and manipulate them into believing that they have committed some serious crime.
The cyber fraudsters deceive the victim into believing that he or she has been put under ‘digital arrest’ and will be prosecuted if they do not pay the scamsters a huge amount of money. As per cyber crime experts, the fraudsters MO in this tactic is using fear and sense of urgency against the victims, and ensuring they part with their money before they release it is a scam.
The cyber criminals often force the naive victims to self-arrest or self-quarantine themselves, by tricking them into believing that they have been put under ‘digital arrest’ and cannot leave their house unless they pay up.
MHA issues alert
Meanwhile, the I4C– the cyber wing of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has issued an alert to the police in all states and union territories amid the surge in cases of digital arrest cases.
As per an official notification, MHA alerted that criminals are defrauding people by posing as officials of central agencies such as ED, CBI and RBI.
The MHA said its I4C wing has blocked more than 1,000 Skype IDs in connection with these cases, and is in the process of blocking hundreds of SIM cards used in fraud
“In the last few months, several cases of fraud by posing as fake CBI officers, ED and NCB officers had come to light in the I4C wing of MHA,” the Home Ministry said, adding that a plethora of such complaints have been registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP), prompting the cyber wing to take action.
The MHA said its cyber wing is working closely with other ministries and agencies, including the RBI, to expose and halt this alarming trend.
The Home Ministry said cyber criminals are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to scare victims by mimicking voices of their loved ones and family members, in order to extort money from them.
The MHA’s cyber wing has also set up a helpline number to report such cases and seek more information about this new method of cyber crime. Victims have been asked to call 1930 and immediately report such frauds to the I4C wing.
DoT issues advisory
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has also issued an advisory to citizens in wake of surging cases of cyber fraud, urging citizens not to attend fake phone calls. The DoT noted that fraudsters often threaten to disconnect the victim’s mobile number, or claim that the number is being misused in some illegal activity, thus exposing them to extortion.
The DoT had also issued advisory about WhatsApp calls made from foreign origin mobile numbers (like +92-xxxxxxxxxx) impersonating government officials and duping people.