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Digital arrest scam: what it is and how to stay safe

Nobody in India can be arrested on a phone or video call. How the digital arrest scam works, how to recognise it, and what to do at once if it reaches your family.

By JamunatherPublished 9 min read

An illustration of a smartphone whose screen is barred like a prison cell, standing in a calm field of dots, with one orange dot outside it

It usually starts with an ordinary phone call. The caller says he is from a courier company, a telephone company or the police. Within a few minutes the story turns: a parcel in your name has been caught with drugs in it, or your Aadhaar number has been used for money laundering, and a case has been registered against you.

Then you are put through to an “officer” on a video call. He is in uniform, and behind him is what looks like a police station. He tells you that you are under arrest, that you must stay in front of the camera, and that you must tell no one. Then he asks for money.

This is the digital arrest scam. The states have told the Supreme Court that senior citizens are the people it targets most often, but it catches people of every age: retired officers, doctors, teachers, students. It works because it is frightening, and because most people have never been told the one fact that ends it.

The one fact to remember

There is no such thing as a digital arrest in Indian law. No police officer, CBI or ED officer, judge or bank can arrest you on a phone or video call, or ask you for money to end one.

What is a digital arrest?

A digital arrest is not an arrest. It is a fraud. Criminals pretend to be officers of the police, the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate, the narcotics department, the Reserve Bank of India, the telecom department or a court. They say you are caught up in a serious crime, keep you on a video call for hours or even days, and frighten you into sending them your money.

The government has said so plainly. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, part of the Ministry of Home Affairs, states in its advisory that “there is no concept of Digital Arrest under any Indian Laws”. The CBI says the same, and asks people “not to panic or comply with such calls”. In his Mann Ki Baat broadcast of 27 October 2024, the Prime Minister put it in one line: “there is no system like digital arrest in the law, this is just a fraud”.

A real arrest happens to a person, in person. Under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, the law that now sets out how an arrest is made, the officer must actually touch or hold the person being arrested, unless they give themselves up. He must wear clear identification with his name on it, and make a written record of the arrest that a witness signs and the arrested person signs too. The police must tell a relative or a friend where the person is being held, and nobody may be held by the police for more than 24 hours, not counting the journey to the court, without a magistrate’s order.

None of this can happen on a video call. Notice the difference, too: a real arrest must be told to your family. A fake one works only as long as your family never finds out.

Pretending to be a public servant is itself a crime under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, punishable with up to three years in prison. The person in uniform on your screen is the one breaking the law.

How does the scam work?

The details change from case to case, but most follow the same five steps.

  1. The first call. A recorded message or a person says that your mobile number is about to be cut off, that a FedEx or DHL parcel in your name has been stopped with drugs or fake passports in it, or that your Aadhaar card, SIM card or bank account has been used in a crime. Sometimes they say that a son, a daughter or another relative has been caught in a crime or an accident and is in their custody.
  2. The officer. You are “transferred” to someone who says he is from the police, the CBI, the ED or the narcotics department, usually on a WhatsApp or Skype video call. The uniform, the police station behind him, his ID card and the papers he shows you are all fake. Even the number can be faked: the Enforcement Directorate warns that a spoofed number can show up in the Truecaller app as a real government office.
  3. The cage. You are told that you are under investigation, that you must keep the camera on and stay where you are, and that you must not tell anyone. People have been kept like this for days, and in one case investigated by the CBI, for three months. The Supreme Court heard of a couple who were shown forged orders of the Supreme Court itself on WhatsApp.
  4. The money. To “clear your name”, you are told to move your savings into an account for “verification”, or to pay a “fine” or “bail”. The Reserve Bank of India has said that it “does not maintain any account in the name of individuals” and never asks anyone to deposit money with it.
  5. The silence. Once the money has gone, the calls stop, the numbers go dead, and the money is passed on from account to account.

This is not a small crime. Figures given to Parliament show 1,23,672 digital arrest and related cases reported on the national cyber crime portal in 2024, and ₹1,935 crore lost. In a case reported in August 2025, a family in Noida, in the district next to ours, lost ₹3.21 crore after being held on a video call for 38 days. The Supreme Court has been hearing a case about these scams since October 2025.

How can you recognise it?

Any one of these signs is enough. You do not need to see all of them.

  • Someone threatens you with arrest on the phone or on a video call.
  • A police officer, CBI officer or judge appears on WhatsApp, Skype or any other video call.
  • You are told to keep it a secret, even from your own family.
  • You are told not to hang up, or to stay in front of the camera.
  • You are asked to pay money, to move money “for verification”, or to share an OTP, a PIN or your bank details.
  • You are sent official-looking papers on WhatsApp: a warrant, a notice, a letter with the seal of the police, the CBI, the RBI or a court. The Supreme Court has ruled that a police notice under the arrest law cannot be served on WhatsApp.
  • The caller is in a hurry. You must decide now, or you will be arrested today.

In the Prime Minister’s words: “No government agency threatens you on the phone like this, neither inquires nor demands money on a video call like this. If you feel scared, then know that something is wrong.”

What should you do during such a call?

The government’s advice is three steps long: Stop, think, take action. In Hindi it is Ruko, socho, action lo.

  1. Stop. Do not panic, and do not rush. Do not answer their questions, and do not give any personal detail, OTP or bank detail. If you can, take a screenshot or record the call.
  2. Think. Hang up. You are not under arrest. No real officer will ever ask you to stay on a video call, or to pay money to end a case. If you are worried that there really is a case against you, call your local police station on a number you look up yourself, never on one the caller gives you. A real court summons can now be sent electronically, so check any notice before you trust it. The CBI’s ABHAY chatbot on its website tells you whether a notice in the CBI’s name is real, and the ED’s “Verify your summons” page does the same for the ED. For anything else, ask your local police station or a lawyer.
  3. Take action. Tell your family. Report the number on Chakshu, on the government’s Sanchar Saathi website, so that it can be blocked. If any money has gone, call 1930 straight away.

What if money has already been sent?

Move fast. Money taken by fraud can be put on hold only while it is still in the banking system, and the people who take it move it on quickly. UP Police asks victims to call 1930 within 24 hours, and sooner is better. In one case in Mangaluru, a woman who had been cheated reported it about four hours later, and the police froze the whole ₹17 lakh.

  1. Call 1930. This is the national cyber crime helpline. It is free, and it is open day and night. Tell them how much was sent, when, and to which account or UPI ID. They pass the details to your bank and to the bank that received the money, which can hold the money if it is still there.
  2. Complete the complaint online at cybercrime.gov.in⁠. After your call you get an SMS with a complaint number, and you are asked to fill in the full details on the portal within 24 hours.
  3. Call your bank on the number printed on your passbook or card. Sanchar Saathi’s “Trusted Contact Details” lists the genuine numbers of banks. Ask the bank to stop any further payments from your account.
  4. Keep everything: the phone numbers, screenshots of the video call and the chats, the transaction IDs, and the account numbers the money went to.
  5. Go to the police. Every district in Uttar Pradesh, Bulandshahr included, has a cyber crime police station. Take your evidence, and keep a copy of your complaint.

National Cyber Crime Helpline

Free, and open day and night. Call as soon as money has gone.

1930Call 1930

Be clear about the odds. Money that has moved on is hard to get back. Government figures for the three years to March 2026 show more than ₹56,087 crore reported lost to cyber fraud across India, more than ₹9,079 crore of it put on hold, and just over ₹206 crore returned so far. That is why speed matters more than anything else.

Being cheated is not a crime, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. The people who do this count on shame to keep you quiet. Tell your family, and report it.

How can you protect your family?

A few minutes of talk can protect the elders in your family, especially those who live alone or whose children live far away.

  • Tell them the one fact. Nobody can be arrested on a video call, and no officer ever asks for money on the phone.
  • Make a family rule. Any call about the police, a case, an arrest or a parcel means: hang up, then phone a family member before doing anything else.
  • Save 1930 in every phone in the house, under a name like “Cyber police”.
  • Be wary of calls from abroad. Calls from international numbers now carry the label “International Call” on the main networks. No police station in India calls you from abroad. Report any call from abroad that shows an Indian number on Sanchar Saathi.
  • Keep OTPs and PINs private. No bank and no officer ever needs them.
  • Report suspicious calls and messages on Chakshu, even when you lost nothing. It helps to get the numbers blocked.
  • Check the mobile connections in your name on Sanchar Saathi, and report any you did not take.

The stories change, but the method does not: fear, then hurry, then secrecy, then money. Once you know that, the call loses its power.

Sources

Every fact in this article was checked against these sources on 26 September 2026.