Sinister Masquerading

Banks should be required to regularly educate their customers through known officials about emerging digital scams

- RAAVI BIRBAL

The extent to which a human mind can think about crime is bizarre. The latest is digital arrest. Duping a common man of hard-earned money is heinous. One must note—there is no provision for digital arrest under Indian law. Staying informed is the best precaution against such crimes.

Digital arrest is a kind of fraud in which impersonators use spoofed phone numbers, messages, WhatsApp, texts, emails, etc., to pose as police or legal authorities including the CBI, tax officers, customs, law enforcement officers, and other government officials. Scammers attempt to scare victims by employing strategies like fake digital arrests or threats of prosecution and serious legal action to compel people to disclose information relating to their accounts or even transfer money.

Some of the modi operandi include the impersonators convincing the victim that they are being investigated for crimes. When victims claim innocence or express ignorance of the alleged crime, the criminal—posing as a law enforcement officer or agency—may even convince them that their identity was stolen and misused, often deceiving them with false sympathy. The offenders have reportedly isolated victims by holding them under a so-called 'digital arrest'. Offenders have posed to victims that they are under surveillance and kept them under it for several hours. Then come demands for urgent payments or sharing of sensitive information.