Technological advancement can leave in its trail newer forms of transgressions in cyberspace. ‘Digital arrest’ is one such evolving cybercrime wherein fraudsters impersonate authorities, such as those from law enforcement, accuse unsuspecting individuals of financial and other misconduct and, under the guise of clearing their name, extort money from them. Earlier this year, the minister of state for home affairs had informed the Rajya Sabha that digital arrest scams and related cybercrimes have almost tripled in India between 2022 and 2024. It is thus heartening that last week India witnessed what is possibly the first-ever conviction in a digital arrest case. A trial court in Kalyani in West Bengal’s Nadia district awarded life sentences to nine accused
who had coerced an individual to pay one crore rupees. The convicts, part of a larger gang spread across India and Southeast Asian nations, had amassed a sum of Rs 100 crore by duping 108 individuals using multiple bank accounts. Declaring the act as nothing short of “economic terrorism”, the court went on to set a precedent with its strict punitive measure that should act as a deterrent for cyber fraudsters.
The conviction comes against the backdrop of a frightening reality. In a statement last week, the Union home ministry had stated that approximately Rs 7,000 crore was lost to online scams in the first five months of this year. According to the data compiled by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, over half of this defrauded amount was amassed by syndicates operating out of Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. In fact, in March, the Union government was successful in rescuing at least 300 Indian nationals from Southeast Asia who had been lured by foreign syndicates with fake job offers and then forced to commit cybercrimes on their behalf. The challenge is hydra-headed. A multitude of factors, such as digital vulnerability and illiteracy among the people, unemployment, a weak culture of data security, gaps in institutional oversight as well as trafficking networks have converged to create this serious crisis. Along with identifying mule accounts used for defrauding and strengthening legal deterrents, raising public awareness remains the key when it comes to tackling cybercrimes. A profile of the victims of cyber fraud would, in all probability, reveal that the scammers mostly target senior citizens. So this constituency must be a priority when it comes to campaigns against digital fraud. A new, robust transnational alliance among affected nations that would lead to better coordination among law enforcement personnel of different countries could also be looked into.