Cases of digital arrest are increasing rapidly these days. Cybercriminals are easily making people their victims through digital arrest. A special conversation was held with cyber crime expert and Supreme Court advocate Virag Gupta regarding this. During this, he discussed in detail the methods of cheating people through digital arrest, the provisions of punishment, and how to avoid it.

What is digital arrest?

In digital arrest, a person is threatened online that he has been arrested by a government agency and he will have to pay a penalty or fine. Digital arrest is a term that is not in the law. But, it has emerged due to the increasing crimes of criminals. In the last three months, 600 such cases have come up in Delhi-NCR, in which fraud of Rs 400 crore has taken place. Apart from this, there are many unreported cases. There are also many such cases in which those who try to cheat are not successful. The organized gang of digital arrest has not been exposed yet, due to which the cases of digital arrest are increasing.

How are people trapped in cases of digital arrest?

There are 4-5 ways of cheating in this. For example, by taking the name of a courier and saying that the wrong goods have come in it. There are drugs in the courier, due to which you will get trapped. Such transactions have been done from your bank account which are related to financial fraud. Mostly those people are trapped by showing the fear of money laundering, NDPS, who are educated and law-aware. Such people are intimidated and ransom is demanded from them through digital means. If there is no money in their accounts, then they are given loans. Many times, if they do not have loan-taking apps, then those apps are also made to download. Many times, they are kept under digital arrest for two to three days.

How can one avoid a case of digital arrest?

There are many types of crimes in this. SIM cards are obtained in the wrong way, bank accounts are opened in the wrong way. The PAN card, Aadhaar card, and many other data of the people who are cheated are collected illegally. Money is transferred from their accounts. Many times money is sent abroad through hawala through crypto or gaming apps.

He said that people should keep in mind that no government agency conducts online inquiries. Government agencies only conduct physical inquiries. If such an incident happens to anyone, he can report it in two ways. A complaint can be lodged through the cyber fraud helpline number or email. Apart from this, you can also complain to the local police. If you inform the police within an hour, there is a possibility of getting back the transferred money.

He further said that the biggest problem for the police is that their SIM card has a different address, and their bank account has a different address. The location of the fraudsters is different. This organized crime is being carried out through call centers in India.

Is there any provision for punishment in digital arrest?

Virag Gupta said that there can be many types of punishment in this case. There can be punishment for making wrong documents, cheating people, or misleading government agencies. Apart from this, there is a provision for punishment for money laundering, punishment under the IT Act, and punishment for getting the wrong SIM card under TRAI law. However, the problem in this is that the people who are caught are low-level pawns and the leaders are sitting abroad. Government agencies are not able to catch them.