Ruchika Tandon, a neurosurgeon at one of India’s top hospitals, was preparing to go to work in August last year when she received the first of a series of almost constant phone calls over the next eight days that left her traumatised and robbed of her life savings.
Dr Tandon, 44, is one of thousands of Indians who fell prey last year to a type of scam known as “digital arrest”. The scammers pose as police officers, investigators and judges in audio and video calls and threaten their victims with arrest for serious crimes such as money laundering, or drug or human trafficking.
In her case, the first call was from a person posing as an officer at India’s telecoms regulator who told her there were more than two dozen complaints against her number related to money laundering and human trafficking.
“They said they would put me in digital custody for investigation. The next day, they held an online court hearing. I saw a photograph of the CJI [Chief Justice of India]. I was not in a state of mind to question anything,” she told The National.
“I panicked and told them it cannot be true. There were 4-5 people. They accused me of money laundering and threatened me with 25 years in prison if found guilty. They also threatened me to not tell anyone about the phone call or else they will put me behind bars immediately.”
The scammers ordered the doctor to take leave from work while they engaged her in almost non-stop audio and video calls for almost eight days. The calls would continue from the time she awoke until she went to sleep.
The constant calls meant that the scammers were able to keep track of her movements, including when she drove to the banks to arrange the transfer of money to them. At one point they even spoke to the doctor's 70-year-old mother, who lives with her, to warn her not to discuss what was happening with anyone.
“For a week, I was on constant calls with them. They asked me to surrender all the money to the government bank account for verification, which they would return after a week. I withdrew my savings, my mother’s pension and my grandfather’s savings. They looked real,” said Dr Tandon.
In total, she paid nearly 25 million rupees ($287,000) to the scammers.
Dr Tandon said she only realised that she had been scammed after returning to work, when she looked up “digital arrests” on the internet. She complained to the cybercrime unit of the Uttar Pradesh state police, who told her they would investigate but that it would take time as they already had many similar cases.
Laboratory of cyber crime
According to Indian government data, thousands of Indians were victims of such scams and lost about 1.2 billion rupees last year. More than 40 per cent of the scams were traced back to Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.
The victims include a prominent industrialist, S P Oswal, who was swindled out of $830,000 after being summoned to a fake online Supreme Court hearing, and Shivankita Dixit, while former Miss India, was duped for $1,100 using allegations of human and drug trafficking.
The tables were turned in one instance in November, when a scammer posing as a policeman called an intended victim who turned out to be a member of the police cyber crime unit in the southern state of Kerala. Authorities released a video of the call, which went viral on social media. It is not clear whether they managed to trace the caller.
The number of “digital arrest” scams prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to raise the issue in his monthly radio address in October, saying Indians had emptied their bank accounts “out of sheer fear”.
“You should be aware that no investigative agency ever inquires like this through a phone or video call,” Mr Modi said.
Pavan Duggal, a leading Indian expert on cyber law, said India is a laboratory for scammers because of the lack of digital literacy among the masses and the ease of making online transactions.
“With 140 crore [1.4 billion] people, India is becoming a living laboratory for cyber crime, a cottage industry,” Mr Duggal told The National.
India has encouraged its citizens to use digital payments, particularly after the Covid pandemic, to achieve its goal of a cashless economy, despite concerns about data security.
The scammers often access information about prospective victims by purchasing databases, data breaches, social media harvesting and even fake surveys.
“The sudden spurt is because people have lowered their guard and joined the digital bandwagon but are not paying the kind of attention to cyber security required. Consequently, whatever segment of society, people are becoming a victim of cyber crime,” Mr Duggal said.
Investigating officials have said that the fraudsters launder the illicit gains through sophisticated financial channels involving banks, cryptocurrency and cash withdrawals across various countries.
Preying on fears
While scammers have been using phone calls, text messages and emails for years, experts say the rise in “digital arrest” scams is alarming because of the use of fear to intimidate victims.
“It is difficult to find a single household not targeted by digital crime. The 150 years of banditry and dacoity is nothing in comparison to the turnover of digital arrests,” said Vikram Singh, a former chief of police in Uttar Pradesh state.
Mr Singh said the scams were based on a widespread fear of the police and legal procedures in India, and the prevalence of corrupt practices such as bribery to dodge the law.
“This fear is exploited by digital crooks,” he said. Dr Tandon backed his assertion. “People think I was a fool but I was scared of harassment,” she said. “I am a government employee and did not want to lose my job or others to know about this investigation.”
