India’s ‘digital arrest’ scammers stealing savings

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BENGALURU: Within five hours of sitting at home in India, retired professor Kamata Prasad Singh handed over his hard-earned money to online fraudsters impersonating police.

Cybercrime known as ‘digital capture’ — where fraudsters impersonate law enforcement officials online and order people to transfer large sums of money — has become so widespread that Prime Minister Narendra Modi Modi has issued a warning.

Singh told AFP that the money was his life savings. “Over the years, I have stopped drinking tea outside, walking to avoid spending on public transport,” said the 62-year-old, his voice breaking.

“Only I know how I saved my money.” Police say fraudsters have exploited a wide gap between India’s fast pace of data digitization, from personal details to online banking, and a lack of awareness of many basic Internet security measures.

Fraudsters are using technology to commit data breaches, targeting information their victims believe is available only to government officials, and making otherwise unexpected demands seem credible.

Modi said in an October radio broadcast that Indians had emptied their bank accounts “out of sheer fear”, and said fraudsters “put a lot of psychological pressure on the victim”.

‘ruined’

Mobile phones, and video calling in particular, have allowed fraudsters to reach people’s homes.

India operates the world’s largest biometric digital identification program — called ‘Aadhaar’, or Foundation in Hindi — a unique card issued to more than a billion people in India, and for financial transactions. Needed fast.

Fraudsters often claim that the police are investigating questionable payments, quoting their target’s Aadhaar number to make it appear genuine.

They then request their victim to make a “temporary” bank transfer to verify their accounts before stealing the cash. Singh, who hails from India’s eastern state of Bihar, said the web of lies began when he received a call from the telecom regulatory authority in December.

“They said… the police were going to arrest me,” Singh said. The fraudsters told Singh that his Aadhaar ID was being misused for illegal payments.

Alarmed, Singh agreed to prove he had control of his bank account, and after threats, transferred more than $16,100. “I’m sleep deprived, I don’t feel like eating,” she said. “I’m ruined.”

‘Examples rot in hell’

Sushil Kumar, a police officer who has handled cybercrimes for half a decade, said the rise of online scams is alarming because of “how accurate and precise they make it”. Offenders range from school dropouts to the highly educated.

“They know what to look for on the Internet to find out basic details about how government agencies work,” Kumar added. According to the latest government data, India recorded 17,470 cybercrimes in 2022, including 6,491 cases of online bank fraud.

Tricks vary. Kaveri, 71, told AFP her story on the condition that her name be changed. The fraudsters, posing as US courier FedEx, claimed to have sent a package containing drugs, passports and credit cards, he said.

They presented his full name and Aadhaar ID details as “evidence”, followed by forged letters from the Central Bank of India and the country’s apex investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“They wanted me to send the money, which would be returned in 30 minutes,” he said, adding that he was convinced when he sent a “properly signed letter”. He transferred nearly $120,000 in savings from the house sale in four installments over the six days before the fraudsters disappeared.

Kaveri says those days felt “like a tunnel”. Meetha, 35, a private health professional from Bengaluru, who did not want to be identified, was framed by the fake police through a video call.

“It looked like a proper police station with the noise of the walkie-talkies,” he said. The fraudsters asked her to prove she controlled her bank account by borrowing INR200,000 ($2,300) through her bank’s phone app, before demanding a “temporary” transfer. .

Despite making it clear to the bank that he had been scammed, Meeta kept being asked to repay the loan. “I’ve lost most of my trust in banks,” he said, before cursing the thieves. “I hope they rot in the proverbial hell.”