MeitY accelerates mass awareness program to prevent 'digital arrest' cases

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has stepped up its efforts to bring awareness against widespread 'digital arrest' cases - a cybercrime activity leading people to dupe their hard-earned money.

"We have stepped up awareness. There is a large-scale program called IESA (information, education and security awareness). In that, we've created a lot of material on various ways on how to maintain cyber safety and cyber hygiene, so that people don't have hacking or other issues," MeitY Secretary S Krishnan told ET.

The program, according to the top official, is being done for common people and in local languages countrywide.


On Sunday's broadcast of the 166th episode of Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that 'digital arrest' is a sham to deceive people especially senior citizens, and stressed upon the need to bring awareness to thwart cybercrimes.

"Fundamentally, digital arrest is an awareness issue. People fall prey for it because somebody cheats them," Krishnan said, adding that scamsters largely target vulnerable people.

Typically, a digital arrest is a deceptive tactic used by cybercriminals, claiming falsely about a past incident, and posing as a law enforcement officer, claiming to have the authority to arrest an individual through digital mode, over the phone or a personal computer (PC).

The cybercriminals intimidate the victims over a phone call, asking to provide personal information and transfer a sum of money, exploiting confusion and panic, enabling financial fraud.

"They (people) don't know enough about the way the government works, or how the public institutions work. People think something may have happened in the past. So, that fear is what is exploited."

Lately, several cases of ‘digital arrest’ have raised concerns over the emerging cybercrime pattern in which people are exposed to losing their money to scamsters.

Recently, a woman in Uttar Pradesh's Noida was duped of Rs 34-lakh by scamsters who threatened her by sending fake notices posing as Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials.

Last week, a Chandigrah resident claimed that he remained digitally arrested for as many as 22 days, eventually losing Rs 51.27 lakh by the fraudsters posing as officials representing Mumbai Police, ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).