In 2020, I got a call from an unknown number, the person on the other side introduced himself to be head constable calling from Delhi NCR region. It was previously my area of work, so I entertained the call. But I was surprised to find a policeman calling me in the afternoon. He knew my full name, my Delhi address. He was blunt in speaking and after sharing my details, he questioned my whereabouts. At first I thought it to be prank from my known one, but the way he was coercing me, I smelt something wrong. He was accusing me of chesting and theft, and wanted me to be at the police station. Else they will file a legal suit against me.
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At first count, anybody would assume it to be true, even I felt scared as noone wanted to be in legal trouble. I was nervous at first, but after a while I realize, I left Delhi few years ago, and how could there be any complain in my name. I queried him about the case detail and date, to which he gave a recent date, that assured me that it was not a call to entertain as it was a fraudlant call, who like to cheat me with false cases. I quickly disconnect the call, and never picked. He dialled 2-3 times and since then, I never get any call from that policeman. The modus operandi was clear, the person wanted to extort money, by falsely implicating me into any case it was actually a conman trying to con me through a fraud call.
Digital House Arrest
After so many years, in this Digital era, I think the cyber criminals learnt that trick. Criminals who are constantly finding new ways to cheat people in the rapidly growing digital world through sms, links, emails calls and now started extorting money through Digital House arrest.
Well it may sounds a scoop from the virtual world, but it is actually happening at many parts of India. This is a new way of extortion, where scammers put the person under house arrest by pretending themselves to be a legal or enforcement department.
Digital House Arrest is a new term coined by cyber criminals. This new method involves scammers pretending to be police officers, CBI or customs officials and calling people to keep them hostage at home. They then proceed to empty the victim's bank account through extracting their personal or banking details.
Recently, a Doctor fall prey to these cyber scamster and lost whopping 59.54 lakhs INR. The cyber criminals who allegedly posed as telecom officials and held her in "digital arrest" for two days. In this case the "official contacted the doctor to a police officer from a local Police Station. The cop informed the Doctor that an FIR had been filed against her for sharing porn videos and an arrest warrant was issued.".
The modus operandi was quite similar to as in my case. But this time it was operated from the cyber criminals. These #scammers trap people by posing as officials and intimidating them with threats of arrest and defamation. The criminals, can put the clients in different false cases like, a parcel containing drugs, a laptop and a credit card was being sent to abroad in the victim's name , money laundering etc. What more interesting is that the fraudster, forced their victim to continuously remain on WhatsApp video calls. The fraudsters keep people imprisoned in their homes by giving them the fear of arrest and force them to pay money.
Avoiding House arrest
Such scenarios are unavoidable, as a common man never wants to get into legal trouble. They always try keep away from court and cases. These scamster nailed the weakness and try to exploit them for their usage. For many individuals getting away from that situation is not easy, however a cool and calm mind alwsys help us to get over it. The only way to avoid is not to loose the patience and thinking power. Understand the situation and in no way "personal information such as Aadhaar, PAN card or banking details with anyone. Banks or government institutions will never ask you for your PIN or OTP"
Alwsys been said, that remain educated and staying alerts are rhe only way to remain safe from these cyber criminals. In case you ever came across such calls, do make sure not to fell into their trap.