Without getting into the modalities of it, imagine losing Rs.19 crores in a digital arrest case. It does not stop getting bigger. All the half hearted attempts of the government, enforcement and the intelligence agencies have not been able to make any dent, but for some headline grabbing detection, some raids, and some blocking of mule accounts. The maximum amount lost in a digital arrest case has been Rs.11.8 crores involving a software from Bangalore before the recent Rs.19 crore case came to light. At the other end of the spectrum we have cases as low as Rs.10,000 – Rs.20,000, but as expected are less likely to reach the headlines.
The exponential increase in these cases is a sad commentary of the nature of impact either awareness or enforcement has made. From 39,925 cases to 2022 to 60,076 in 2023 to 1,23,672 in 2024 has been the progression. The number of cloned and fraudulent SIMs have also been astronomical. In 2022, 640,000 were detected as fraudulent connection to Jan-Feb 2025, wherein 781,000 SIMs associated with digital fraud were blocked and 208, 000 IMEIs too were blocked. Coming to mule accounts in 2022 it was estimated to be between 200,000 to 300,000 and now in 2025 it is over 19 lakhs of which 8.5 lakhs detected in one operation.
We will leave the Cambodian connection and its complexities for some other day. What has brought me back to the topic of digital arrest is a case in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, wherein a senior woman doctor was blackmailed into paying more than Rs.19 crores to fraudsters. The doctor was kept under digital arrest for over three months, forced to break fixed deposits and take loans too. As of now Police have been able to make one arrest and are making efforts to recover the money that has siphoned off through 30-odd accounts.
On similar lines yet the modus operandi was a little different. In her complaint, the doctor said that it started with a phone call in March. Using a multi-way approach they made her believe that she was in trouble. The scam personas ranged from telecom dept to notary official. All these callers told the elderly doctor that objectionable messages were being sent from her number. Audio / video calls to documents all were synthesized seamlessly. The demand was for Rs.20 crores and to cut the long story short she ended up transferring over Rs.19 crores. Now the investigation. Where do we go from here? Or wait for the next digital arrest and loot to happen. Have we lost our plot?
IT WOULD NOT BE LONG BEFORE THE SCAMSTERS PUT COUNTRY UNDER DIGITAL ARREST!