Online scams have once again sparked fear as the recent case of an 86-year-old woman in Mumbai falling prey to digital fraud earlier this month has come to light. The online scammers convinced the elderly woman that her Aadhaar card had been misused and manipulated her to transfer Rs 20 crore. The fraudsters threatened the 86-year-old by placing her under “digital arrest” and restricting her from discussing the details of the conversations with her family members, according to the Indian Express.
After realising that she had been scammed, the 86-year-old woman filed an FIR, and fraudsters were later arrested. Following the arrest, the police shed light on the ways digital scams are being carried out nowadays. The officials pointed out that details related to Aadhaar, and personal information of a financial nature are neither asked by the police nor by the statutory authority, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The officials advised the public to immediately disconnect such calls and report the number to UIDAI’s helpline number,1947.
Surge in Cyber Crime and Financial Losses
The case comes at a time when instances of cyber fraud like digital arrest have substantially increased, coinciding with a surge in online transactions. The Hindu reported, citing the Reserve Bank of India’s response to an RTI application that highlighted that between the financial year 2019-20 and FY24, nearly Rs 3,207 crore was lost due to 582,000 online financial fraud cases.
Similarly, the National Cyber Reporting Platform’s data (NCRP) showed that the financial loss faced by people due to digital scam scams has increased between 2021 and 2023. According to the Indian Express report that cited the data, the financial loss increased from Rs 551 crore in 2021 to Rs 7,496 crore in 2023.
Recently, to curb digital crime, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs blocked 3,962 Skype accounts and 83,668 WhatsApp accounts that were reportedly involved in cyber scams.
While online banking-related frauds have surged over the years, digital arrest has become popular in recent times.
What is Digital Arrest?
In digital arrest, scammers reach out to the victim by phone calls or email and project themselves as law enforcement agents like the State police, CBI, ED, and Narcotics Bureau so that people have fewer chances of doubting their intentions. The scammers also use the images of police officers, lawyers, and judges as their display pictures on their social media accounts to appear more credible. Additionally, in some instances they have also sent fake arrest warrants, legal notices or official-looking documents to threaten the callers through email and normal text messages. In certain cases, the audio call switches to video calls the background is portrayed in a way that the scammer is calling from places like airports, police stations or courts.
According to an Inc42.com report, minister of state (MoS) for home affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar informed the Parliament that Indians lost Rs 1,935.51 crore in 2024 due to digital arrest. Nearly 17,718 cases of digital arrest scams were registered in the first two months of 2025 itself, amounting to Rs 210.21 crore, the MoS added.
