How the scam works, as the Ministry describes it
On 14 May 2024 the Ministry of Home Affairs issued an alert, through the Press Information Bureau, against incidents of blackmail and digital arrest by cyber criminals impersonating State and Union Territory police, the Narcotics Control Bureau, the CBI, the Reserve Bank of India and other law enforcement agencies. The alert says that a large number of complaints were being reported on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal about intimidation, blackmail, extortion and digital arrests by criminals posing as these authorities.
The fraudsters typically call a potential victim and say that the person has sent, or is the intended recipient of, a parcel that contains illegal goods, drugs, fake passports or another contraband item. Sometimes they say that a near or dear one has been found to be involved in a crime or an accident and is in their custody. A demand for money is made to settle the case. In certain instances victims are made to undergo digital arrest, which means that they must stay visually available over Skype or another video conferencing platform to the fraudsters until their demands are met. The fraudsters are known to use studios modelled on police stations and government offices and to wear uniforms to look genuine.
The Ministry describes this as an organised online economic crime that is learnt to be operated by cross-border crime syndicates. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, which is the Ministry’s office for coordinating action against cyber crime, had by then blocked more than one thousand Skype IDs involved in such activities in collaboration with Microsoft, and it facilitates the blocking of SIM cards, mobile devices and mule accounts used by such fraudsters.
The provisions of law that match the conduct
“Digital arrest” is a name for a fraud and not a procedure of law. The conduct it describes falls within a number of offences that are already in the statute book. The table lists them, with the punishment as the Act states it. It sets out the provisions that match the facts in the Ministry’s description, and which of them are charged in a given case is decided by the police and the court. The numbers of the sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and of the Indian Penal Code that they replaced are listed on the page on IPC to BNS.
| Conduct | Provision | Punishment |
|---|---|---|
| Pretending to be a public servant and acting under colour of the office | Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, section 204 | Imprisonment of not less than six months that may extend to three years, and fine. |
| Wearing a garb or carrying a token resembling that of a class of public servants so as to be believed to belong to it | Section 205 | Imprisonment up to three months, or fine up to Rs 5,000, or both. |
| Cheating by pretending to be another person | Section 319 | Imprisonment up to five years, or fine, or both. |
| Cheating and inducing delivery of property | Section 318(4) | Imprisonment up to seven years and fine. |
| Putting a person in fear of injury to make them deliver property | Section 308 | Extortion: imprisonment up to seven years, or fine, or both. |
| Threatening a person by any means with injury to person, reputation or property | Section 351 | Criminal intimidation: up to two years, or fine, or both; up to seven years for some threats. |
| Making false electronic records or documents, such as a fake notice or warrant | Sections 336 and 340 | Forgery and using a forged record as genuine. |
| A group acting together in continuing cyber-crimes and economic offences | Section 111 | Organised crime: five years to life and a fine of not less than Rs 5 lakh. |
| Cheating by personation using a computer resource | Information Technology Act, section 66D | Imprisonment up to three years and fine up to one lakh rupees. |
Section 111 of the Sanhita, on organised crime, lists cyber-crimes and economic offences, including forgery and mass-marketing fraud, among the continuing unlawful activities that it covers when they are carried on by an organised crime syndicate of two or more persons. The conditions are strict: the activity must be a cognizable offence punishable with at least three years, and more than one charge-sheet must have been filed in the preceding ten years.
Where to report
The Ministry’s advice is to report the incident immediately on the cyber crime helpline 1930 or on www.cybercrime.gov.in. The portal was launched as part of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre to let the public report all types of cyber crime, with a special focus on crimes against women and children. Incidents reported on it are converted into FIRs and handled by the State or Union Territory police under the law. The helpline 1930 was operationalised to give help in lodging online complaints, and the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, launched in 2021, is meant for immediate reporting of financial fraud so that the siphoning of funds can be stopped. The steps and the papers to keep are set out in the page on how to report a cyber crime online.
The portal also has a feature called Report and Check Suspect, which gives a citizen a search option over the repository of identifiers of cyber criminals kept by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre. A Suspect Registry of such identifiers was launched on 10 September 2024 in collaboration with banks and financial institutions.
What the government reports it has done
In its replies in Parliament the Ministry of Home Affairs has listed the steps taken. The Central Government and telecom service providers have devised a system to identify and block incoming international spoofed calls that display Indian mobile numbers, which were used in cases of fake digital arrest, courier-parcel scams and impersonation of government and police officials. A Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre has been set up at the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, where representatives of major banks, payment aggregators, telecom providers, IT intermediaries and State and Union Territory police work together. The table gives two sets of figures from the replies.
| Measure | Rajya Sabha, 27 November 2024 | Lok Sabha, 2 December 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| SIM cards blocked on police reports | More than 6.69 lakh (till 15 November 2024) | More than 11.14 lakh (2 December 2025) |
| IMEIs blocked on police reports | More than 1.32 lakh (till 15 November 2024) | More than 2.96 lakh (2 December 2025) |
| Amount saved through the financial fraud reporting system | More than Rs 3,431 crore in more than 9.94 lakh complaints | More than Rs 7,130 crore in more than 23.02 lakh complaints |
The same reply of 2 December 2025 records the number of incidents registered on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal as 1,029,026 in 2022, 1,596,493 in 2023 and 2,268,346 in 2024, and amounts reported lost to cyber fraud, as recorded on the portal and the reporting system, of Rs 2,290.24 crore in 2022, Rs 7,465.18 crore in 2023 and Rs 22,845.73 crore in 2024. The reply also records that, as a matter of the Constitution, police and public order are State subjects, and that action on reported incidents, including the conversion into FIRs, charge-sheets and arrests, is for the State and Union Territory police.
Frequently asked questions
What is a digital arrest scam?
The Ministry of Home Affairs describes it as an organised online economic crime in which callers posing as police, the CBI, narcotics officials, the Reserve Bank of India, the Enforcement Directorate or other agencies tell a person that a parcel in their name holds contraband or that a relative is in custody, and demand money to settle the case. In some cases the victim is kept visually available over a video call until the demands are met.
Is a digital arrest a real arrest?
The Ministry’s alert describes these calls as fraud by criminals who pose as officials, using studios modelled on police stations and uniforms to look genuine, and not as an act of any authority. The Ministry advises a person who receives such a call to report it on 1930 or www.cybercrime.gov.in.
Where do I report a digital arrest scam?
On the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal at cybercrime.gov.in or on the helpline 1930, immediately. Where money has been transferred, the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, launched in 2021 for immediate reporting of financial fraud, exists so that the siphoning of funds can be stopped, and the helpline 1930 gives help in lodging the complaint.
Which sections apply to a digital arrest scam?
The conduct falls within several provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including personating a public servant (section 204), cheating by personation (section 319), cheating (section 318), extortion (section 308), criminal intimidation (section 351) and forgery (sections 336 and 340), and within section 66D of the IT Act. Which of them are charged is for the police and the court.
Does the central government investigate these cases?
Not as a rule. In a reply in the Rajya Sabha on 27 November 2024 the Ministry said that police and public order are State subjects and that States and Union Territories are primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of cyber crime, with the Centre supplementing them through advisories and financial assistance.