In this episode, we investigate how cybercriminals use virtual arrests to trap victims in fake legal situations, targeting everyone from celebrities to everyday people.
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[00:00:00] Last week, scammers posing as Mumbai police officers placed Malayalam actor Mala Parvati in a virtual arrest for an hour and they tried to extort money from her.
[00:00:11] Former Metropolitan of Niranam Diocese of Malangarab Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church Dr. Givirgi's more Khurulos fell prey to a similar gang last month.
[00:00:22] The top priest lost 15 lakh rupees in cyber fraud and was virtually arrested for 48 hours.
[00:00:36] Hi and welcome to News Break, I'm Kanan. Today we are looking at the latest method deployed by cyber criminals, digital arrests.
[00:00:45] Digital or virtual arrests is a type of cyber fraud in which scammers make audio or video calls,
[00:00:53] The cyber criminals pose as law enforcement officers and confine victims to their homes, offices or hotel rooms to defraud them.
[00:01:01] They falsely accuse the individuals of committing crimes or violating laws and threaten them with arrest unless they pay money.
[00:01:10] These threats are often accompanied by fabricated legal documents or impersonations of law enforcement officials.
[00:01:17] The cyber criminals then confine the victims to their premises and ask them not to contact anyone.
[00:01:24] They may even ask the victims to keep their mobile phone cameras on as part of a digital arrest and then seek money through online transfer to bail the victim out of their situation.
[00:01:37] The scamsters who contacted more Khurulos accused him of being involved in a money laundering case related to the jail's Jetaeva's founder Naresh Goyal.
[00:01:48] The person pretended to be a Supreme Court judge and made the priest believe his accounts were frozen.
[00:01:54] To unfreeze them, he forwarded 15 lakh rupees to three accounts.
[00:01:59] The money he later revealed to the media included his post-retirement benefits.
[00:02:05] Actor Malaparwadi on the other hand was lucky because she did not lose any money.
[00:02:10] Scamsters pretended to be officers from Mumbai police and accused her of smuggling drugs to Taiwan and placed her under virtual arrest for questioning.
[00:02:19] What are the enforcement agencies doing if this kind of fraud is rampant?
[00:02:23] Cyber crime experts in Kerala police say that cops across India are carrying out arrests but that doesn't seem to have an effect on scammers.
[00:02:33] In fact, the day on which actor Parwati revealed her ordeal, Ahmedabad police arrested 17 people including two Taiwanese citizens for running a digital fraud including digital arrests.
[00:02:46] Police believe that awareness and common sense will go a long way in preventing such fraud.
[00:02:51] People need to understand that there is no law in India that states the police or any other enforcement agency can arrest someone over the phone or text message or video calls.
[00:03:03] Even if someone makes a threat, ask them to come in person and record the arrest, says Bijamonius, Vigilance SP, a cyber crime investigator and cyber forensic expert.
[00:03:15] He says a false sense of security that such frauds will only affect the rich and famous might make people ignore news reports or regular warnings from regulatory authorities like TRI, RBI, telecom operators and banks.
[00:03:30] Kerala police's efforts to increase awareness fall on deaf ears as only a few people see their advices posted on online platforms.
[00:03:40] One way to safeguard yourself from a fraud is to identify the red flags while scammers try to entrap you.
[00:03:48] As explained earlier, no regulators or prosecuting authority in India will make a voice or video calls to arrest someone.
[00:03:56] So the phone call itself is the biggest red flag.
[00:03:59] In most instances, fraudsters will tell the victim that several agencies are involved in their case and switch the call between different, say, officers.
[00:04:09] That is a sure shot sign of a fraud in progress.
[00:04:14] Then comes the bank accounts.
[00:04:16] No official agency operates through personal bank accounts.
[00:04:20] So when scammers tell the victims to pay into individual accounts, remember that you are being defrauded.
[00:04:28] As a senior officer says, a little common sense and awareness that you can be scammed will go a long way towards safeguarding you from online fraudsters.
[00:04:39] That brings us to the end of today's episode.
[00:04:42] This is On Manorama's News Break and Explainer podcast produced by Haridha Benjamin.
[00:04:48] It airs every week and is available on all podcast platforms.
[00:04:52] For more news, views and updates, follow onmanorama.com.