By Sanjeev Kumar Patro
Bhubaneswar: Digital Arrest is all about the virtual version of Akshay Kumar’s Special 26, the 2013 film where Akshay Kumar and Anupam Kher posing as CBI officers conduct raids to rob black money from susceptible politicians and businessmen.
Unlike the Special 26, in Digital Arrest, there is no physical involvement, no face to face, but there will be an interface virtually. The same modus operandi will be played out virtually – means digitally or say via phone – to rob your hard earned money.
In his Mann Ki Baat Programme Sunday, PM Modi has warned of the citizens about the digital age peril. He asked not to fear or panic, rather simply call the number 1930.
DIGITAL ARREST TURNING A MENACE
The national e-governance services quoting reports said more than 200 cases were reported in National Capital Region (NCR) alone in a month.
Not only common man, it happened with business czars like Vardhman Group chairman SP Oswal and Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal.
Vardhman Group Chairman SP Oswal was allegedly duped into transferring Rs 7 crore to bank accounts of cybercriminals under “digital custody”. They contacted him on Skype and told him he was a “suspect in a money laundering case”.
Similarly, fraudsters impersonated Chief Justice of India Justice DY Chandrachud and held a fake Supreme Court hearing via Skype, citing a money-laundering probe against Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal.
UNDERSTANDING THE MODUS OPERANDI
A “Digital Arrest” scam involves fraudsters impersonating law enforcement via video calls, threatening fake arrests to extort money. How the scam starts.
It is worth mentioning here that as per the National e Governance Services, the fraudsters in many cases might have collected some of the information about you, such as Aadhaar (or probably the last 4 digits), PAN, Bank details etc. Now, note down the steps the fraudsters will take to dupe you.
- In majority cases, scam starts with a simple phone call claimed to be from any courier company, any Mobile service provider, Telecom department or any Bank.
- Calls may be a direct call or a recorded message with a request to enter any number to get further details.
- The call gets connected to a human who claim he/she to be a support person.
- The trauma begins from here.
- With having prior information about your aadhar number, PAN number, Bank details, the fraudsters will make you to believe that your Aadhaar, PAN, Mobile or Bank account has been used for illegal activities.
- And after informing so, fraudsters will connect the victim to fake officials who fake as the top officials of the law enforcement agencies like Police, Customs, ED, CBI etc
- The top officials then hold interrogation over video conferencing and issue an arrest warrant over the call or through WhatsApp.
- After completing fake inquiry, they issue ‘Digital Arrest’ of the victim.
DIGITAL ARREST
Explaining ‘Digital Arrest’, the National e Governance Services explained: Digital Arrest involves the virtual restraint of individuals, which includes restricted access to the accounts, and digital platforms, prevention of any digital activities, live monitoring through video call, periodic attendance reporting on the call till the scammers could extract the money from the victim.
Typical mode of Operandi is to issue an arrest take the victim to a virtual court on a Skype call while in “Digital arrest”. The victim is made to believe that the account balance in the banks to be transferred to a bank account, which will be verified and returned in a maximum of 30 minutes. Letters in fake letterheads of various authorities shall be issued and on transfer of accounts, receipt also will be issued.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), affiliated to Union Home Ministry, has issued an advisory asking people ‘don’t panic, stay alert. CBI/police/Custom/ED/Judges do not arrest you on video call’.
If you become a victim of financial cyber frauds, immediately call the National Cybercrime Helpline number 1930.
THE DIGITAL ARREST GUIDE
As a preventive measure, the government has launched the Chakshu portal ( https://sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc/Home/sfc-complaint.jsp ) recently, under the Sanchar Sathi initiative of the Department of Telecom.
Chakshu facilitates citizens to report the suspected fraud communications with the intention of defrauding telecom service users for cyber-crime, financial frauds, impersonation or any other misuse through Call, SMS or WhatsApp.
