Why ‘Digital Arrest’ Scams Are Exploding in India — and What Makes Them So Effective

The Supreme Court’s recent suo motu intervention on the surge of so-called “digital arrest” frauds has brought national attention to a crime that has quietly devastated thousands of Indian households. Far from being a niche cyber offence, these scams reveal deeper weaknesses in India’s digital governance, policing capacity, and social psychology — vulnerabilities that fraudsters have learned to exploit with alarming efficiency.

What triggered the Supreme Court’s intervention?

Last month, the Supreme Court of India took suo motu cognisance of complaints from an elderly couple and reports of widespread online fraud described as “digital arrest”. The Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation and select States to begin a coordinated pan-India probe.

Recognising that the fraud involves complex money trails, the Court also advised the Reserve Bank of India to deploy artificial intelligence and machine-learning tools to track money layering across multiple bank accounts. Internet service providers and technology platforms were asked to cooperate fully with investigators.

What exactly is a “digital arrest” scam?

In these scams, fraudsters impersonate law-enforcement officials — from the “Cyber Crime Cell” and “Narcotics Bureau” to courts and regulatory agencies — and accuse victims of serious crimes. Victims are threatened with immediate arrest, seizure of assets, or public humiliation unless they “cooperate”.

The cooperation usually involves transferring money for “verification”, “bail”, or “settlement”, often while being kept on video calls to prevent them from contacting family or authorities. There is no legal basis for such arrests or payments — but fear does the work.

Internationally, similar scams exist under different names. In the United States, they are classified as government impersonation frauds, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation reporting losses of $1.6 billion last year. In Australia and Canada, they are often called “virtual kidnapping”, costing A$2 billion and C$635 million respectively in the same period.

The scale of the problem in India

India’s numbers are no longer small. Fraudsters have cumulatively extracted around ₹3,000 crore through digital arrest scams. Data from the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal shows a steep rise: 39,925 cases in 2022, jumping to 1,23,672 cases in 2024, with reported losses of ₹1,936 crore. The trend has continued into 2025, with over 17,000 cases recorded in just the first few months.

These figures likely understate the problem, given under-reporting driven by shame, fear and lack of awareness.

Why India is particularly vulnerable: structural gaps

One reason digital arrest scams thrive is uneven cybercrime enforcement. Many police units lack specialised cyber-forensics capacity, while scammers often operate from cross-border call centres or jurisdictions with weak policing.

India’s rapid digitisation has also outpaced its security architecture. Government services, banking and courts have moved online, but safeguards such as caller authentication, real-time fraud detection, unified alert systems and rapid inter-agency coordination remain patchy. Telecom operators and law-enforcement agencies do not always act in sync, delaying the blocking of suspicious numbers or tracing of networks.

Slow legal processes and limited nationwide cyber-awareness campaigns further reduce the perceived risk for fraudsters — and raise it for ordinary citizens.

The social psychology scammers exploit

Beyond institutional weaknesses, these scams succeed because they weaponise fear. The authority of police and government agencies carries immense psychological weight in India, reinforced by historical mistrust of law enforcement and limited familiarity with due process.

Low digital literacy compounds the problem. Many people struggle to distinguish genuine government communication from fraudulent threats. A stern voice invoking “High Court warrant” or “CBI inquiry” is often enough to trigger panic and compliance.

Social stigma plays a role too. Accusations involving drugs, private messages or personal behaviour carry disproportionate fear, especially in conservative or socially backward regions. Victims often comply silently to avoid perceived shame. The widespread lack of legal awareness — including the fact that arrests, warrants and bail cannot happen over video calls or online payments — completes the trap.

Why enforcement alone won’t be enough

Cracking down on scam networks is necessary, but insufficient. Digital arrest fraud sits at the intersection of technology, governance and social behaviour. Without systemic fixes, new networks will replace old ones.

Key steps include strengthening cybercrime units across States, deploying real-time caller and account verification systems, improving coordination between telecom firms and police, and running sustained, high-visibility national awareness campaigns. Citizens need to know, repeatedly and clearly, what the law does not allow.

The larger lesson

Digital arrests succeed not because scammers are unusually clever, but because fear fills the gaps left by weak systems and limited awareness. When authority is feared blindly and digital systems lack safeguards, fraud flourishes.

The Supreme Court’s intervention signals recognition that this is no longer a peripheral cybercrime issue, but a national governance challenge. When fear loses its power — and systems close their loopholes — digital arrest scams will lose theirs too.