‘We have drones around the apartment’: India’s elderly falling prey to ‘digital arrest’ cases

NEW DELHI – When cybersecurity expert Amarpreet Singh visited his parents’ home in the northern Indian city of Lucknow in December, he sensed something was wrong.

His 73-year-old father was withdrawn and tense, and often engaged in long, mysterious phone conversations.

“I kept asking him what was going on, and then he (finally) told us,” said Mr Singh, who lives in the city of Gurgaon.

He was shocked to realise his father had fallen victim to a “digital arrest” scam – a variant of the common official impersonation sham that is on the rise in India.

A scammer posing as a police official had informed his father that he was implicated in a money laundering case, and the only way to prevent criminal action against his entire family was to pay a series of “fines”.

Believing the scammers that he was under digital arrest, Mr Singh’s father sent “the authorities” nine million rupees (S$126,000), or 90 per cent of his retirement savings, via his banking app and online banking between Dec 3 and 25 before his family found out.

“Even when he spoke of his ordeal to my mother and me, he was in so much of a panic that he was not listening to us. He kept saying he had to send the money,” said Mr Singh.

He filed a police complaint on his father’s behalf, and the authorities managed to freeze a scammer’s bank account, giving hope to the family that some money can be recovered. 

“He is still in so much shock. He has stopped using his mobile phone. He refuses to step out of the house,” Mr Singh added.

Less tech-savvy, easily manipulated

The government informed the Supreme Court in November that victims, mostly the elderly, had been collectively robbed of around 30 billion rupees in digital arrest scams across India.

In such scams, “law enforcement officials” tell a victim that his or her bank account, phone number or Aadhar number – a 12-digit unique identity number – has been used for illegal activities like money laundering or terror financing.

To appear legitimate, scammers often wear police uniforms, and intimidate victims by using legal jargon and forged police or court documents.

Victims are told they are under digital arrest and must remain available for phone and video calls. They are often warned against informing even family members.

In Ghaziabad, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Mr Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a 64-year-old journalist and author, almost fell for a digital arrest scam in June 2024. 

“I was so nervous and under so much panic. The scammers told me not to do anything. They said, ‘We have drones around the apartment and microphones outside your door. You are under constant surveillance.’ It was very Kafkaesque,” said Mr Mukhopadhay. 

He came to his senses before losing money, when a scammer let slip that he did not know it takes 48 to 72 hours to redeem mutual funds and for the money to be transferred into the bank account.

India has seen

an increase in cybercrimes

after millions of people shifted to digital banking and mobile payment methods during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Cybercrimes doubled from 1.029 million in 2022 to 2.268 million in 2024, with the elderly particularly vulnerable to digital arrest scams, phishing, fake investment scams and the like.

While many retirees use digital payment methods, they are not completely familiar with tech. Scammers also prey on their deep fear of the police and the courts, where cases can stretch for years. 

“The elderly are not that aware of technology. If they are told (by scammers) to download an app, they can’t figure out why, or that a particular app may be some remote access tool,” said Professor Triveni Singh, a former police official and chief mentor of the non-profit Future Crime Research Foundation.

“They are scared of any sort of legal entanglement. Scammers exploit the fear psychosis.”

India’s population of those aged 60 and above is projected to surge to around 230 million by 2036, making up about 15 per cent of the total population, from 100 million in 2011, when the last government census was conducted.

There was an 86 per cent rise in cybercrimes targeting seniors between 2020 and 2022, during the height of the pandemic when digital payment methods grew exponentially, according to a report by Safer Internet India, an industry coalition of tech, telecommunications and digital services companies.

Seniors were more vulnerable to scams due to “cognitive decline and lack of digital literacy, loneliness and isolation, which make them trust more easily”.

The report further noted the “availability of large sums of funds” when older victims were targeted.

An 85-year-old man in Mumbai, for instance, lost 90 million rupees after scammers posing as police officers coerced him into transferring the funds to multiple bank accounts.

Borderless problem

Investigations show that once victims send money, it is quickly moved through dozens of accounts and often converted to cryptocurrency to be moved out of the country, pointing to the

transnational nature of the crime.

The police have traced links to China and Cambodia, among others, and found that scams involved a wide range of people, including bank officials in some cases.

In a case in the northern city of Chandigarh, about 50 mule accounts were used to move 3.8 million rupees defrauded from an elderly couple. 

The money trail led to the arrest of six people, including a waiter from the southern city of Chennai, with possible links to China.

“They told the elderly couple, ‘If you pay this much money, your arrest will not happen’,” said Chandigarh Superintendent of Police Geetanjali Khandelwal at a press conference on Jan 15.

“We have started a door-to-door campaign, especially for the elderly living alone. We tell them the police will not arrest you digitally and ask for money.”

Police in other states have been doing the same. Messages are also sent to mobile phones by the state authorities telling people there is no such thing as digital arrest.

The Supreme Court in December directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to take the lead in cracking down on digital arrest scams, giving it a “free hand”.

The Ministry of Home Affairs in January told the Supreme Court it had set up a multi-agency task force to investigate the cases.

Still, much of the investigation continues to fall on local police. 

A police inspector who asked not to be named expressed frustration with the number of dead ends he had encountered in digital scam probes.

“Often, the phone numbers that the scammers call from actually belong to a poor rickshawallah or a vegetable vendor who has no clue what is happening,” he said.

Cybercrime experts said the challenge for India is to coordinate responses, given India’s federal system where states are also responsible for criminal matters.

“What is happening in India is that each state is doing something in its own way. They have to create a central architecture that can deal with such a complex crime,” Future Crime Research Foundation’s Prof Singh said, noting that the crimes crossed borders.

Amid the Supreme Court’s concern over the growing number of digital arrest cases, Prof Singh noted that apart from greater capacity building for the police, there is also a need for a larger awareness campaign.

He suggested educational videos targeting not just the elderly, but also women and young people, who are also vulnerable to scams.

The Safer Internet India report said that Indian government agencies should look to other countries for best practices.

As countries around the world tackle the challenge of cybercrime, the report mentioned Singapore’s initiatives like ScamShield and Project PRAISE, which is a partnership between police and volunteers from RSVP Singapore to raise anti-scam awareness among senior citizens.