Digital Arrest New Trend in Cybercrime

Hyderabad: Cybercriminals are at their innovative best in fleecing people and “digital arrest” is the latest fad in cybercrime. The Hyderabad police's recent arrest of 18 cyber fraudsters from Rajasthan brought 10 cyber crimes to light in which people lost money ranging from Rs 1.1 lakh to Rs 2.9 crore.

The fraudsters targeted homemakers, software engineers and senior citizens; and their favourite act was digital arrest.

Hyderabad cybercrime DCP D. Kavitha said the fraudsters laid particular focus on senior citizens and their preferred modus operandi was digital arrest. “With the help of just an Aadhaar card or a phone number, the fraudsters will access the name, date of birth, number of email accounts and bank accounts and the victims. The fraudsters were well aware that they can easily threaten senior citizens and squeeze them for a lot of money. They threaten them in the name of arrest by posing as high-ranking police officials,” she explained.

She narrated the plight of a senior citizen who was digitally arrested for two days in his own house. “In one of the cases, a retired employee was digitally arrested. He was virtually under the control of the fraudsters for two full days even though he was in his house. The retired employee was scared to inform his wife or children about his condition since the fraudsters warned him that they too would be arrested. It has gone to an extent where he was intimidated to report for every three hours on his activities. The fraudsters found that they could easily threaten these people and squeeze as much money as possible through this medium.”

After the arrest of 18 fraudsters from Rajasthan, about 10 cases filed between December 2023 and August 2024 came to light. During the investigation of these cases, police found that the accused had used different types of fraud including investment in stock markets for better results, sextortion and OTP and extortion fraud. Three main accused were identified as Sanjay Biman Das, Shaiukul Khan Mewati and Kapil Bhausaheb Nagare. They were also the final beneficiaries of the frauds.

Despite these criminals extorting huge sums of money from the victims, the people could seize only Rs 5 lakh cash from their possession. They have used the rest of the money to fund their lavish lifestyle and trips to Dubai and other countries.

One officer mentioned, “These accused used up 70 per cent of the extorted money and have invested in setting up another call centre and hiring callers to commit another scam after their release. The accused also pay commissions to the suppliers and purchase bank accounts from illiterate persons by paying them Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 per account.”

Meanwhile, in the 10 cases, the police could freeze Rs 1.61 crore from the bank accounts related to the accused. The trail of the transactions is yet to be identified. To arrest these fraudsters, Hyderabad city police have sent several teams to Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Maharashtra.