“Digital house arrest” is a new form of cyber-crime, due to which common people are terrified, because every day someone or the other is becoming a victim of cyber fraudsters and news of “digital house arrest” is making headlines in newspapers. Educated people are becoming more victims of such fraud and the number of elderly people among the victims of such fraud is high.

Cyber-crimes have diversified a lot in the past years & criminals are now committing cyber-crime in new ways. In this sequence, the new modus operandi is “digital house arrest”. With the help of this method, online fraud has increased a lot. For example, in the first week of October 2024, a 65-year-old elderly woman in Indore city of Madhya Pradesh was digitally imprisoned in the house for 5 days and fake interrogation was done, and 46 lakh rupees were defrauded. On the same lines, in the month of August, a Lucknow-based female neuro doctor was digitally arrested for 6 days and swindled Rs 2.8 crore from the fraudsters. In both the cases, the impostors were claiming to be CBI officers and carried out these frauds by telling the elderly woman and the female doctor about their involvement in the money laundering.

In this fraud, the hoaxers pretend to be officers of the police, CBI, ED, Intelligence Bureau, RAW, Narcotics etc. and make audio or video calls to the target, scaring him so much that he or she transfers his or her entire life savings to the fraudster’s account. To carry out the fraud, the fraudster uses all kinds of tricks, such as the target’s account is being used for money laundering, or his or her close one has been arrested, or he or her is involved in drug smuggling or terrorist activities, etc.

The fraudsters are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to give a concrete form to “digital house arrest”. Through AI, they can convince the target that they are in serious trouble by imitating the voice of the target’s relatives or by making a precise video of the target. The main reason for getting cheated is fear, lack of awareness, not being cautious, and in some cases, one’s own involvement in corruption in the past. Since there is still a lack of strong laws and trained human resources to prevent “digital house arrest” or other cyber-crimes, it seems impossible to stop such fraud in India presently. At present, there is a huge shortage of trained cyber police in the country, which is being exploited by cyber fraudsters.

India is ranked 10th in the world in the “World Cyber ​​Crime Index”. This index includes 100 countries, according to which Russia is at the top in terms of cyber-crime, while Ukraine is second, China third, USA fourth, Nigeria fifth, Romania sixth and North Korea seventh.

Nowadays, fraud or blackmailing is being done by brainwashing teenage girls & their parents through online chatting apps or selling their obscene/nude pictures in the porn market. Incidents of such kind of cheatings have increased with the help of new methods like online gaming, courier, threat of arrest of relative, friend, obscene videos etc. Snap Chat, Facebook and Instagram have also become means of cheating now. Such duplicitous is being done by creating fake profiles of friends or relatives.

In recent years, incidents of cyber-crime through call forwarding have increased significantly. Consumers use this facility when they are busy in a meeting or some important work, so that no important call is missed.

For the past few years, people are looking for answers to all their questions on Google search engine. Keeping such psychology in mind, fraudsters are saving their numbers on the Internet in the name of famous payment apps like Google Pay, Phone Pay, Paytm, due to which people themselves get trapped in the deception of hackers. Cyber-crimes are also being committed through downloading browser extensions. This work is done through viruses. Online transactions done through browsers like Chrome, Mozilla etc. get saved in the browser’s server, which need to be deleted by going to the settings, but due to ignorance people do not do so, which is taken advantage of by cyber fraudsters.

Under phishing, fake websites of some big or famous company are created and tempting mails are sent in which expensive things are promised for free. Hackers also send messages with offers through SMS or WhatsApp, which contain hyperlinks containing malware. The malware steals the financial information of the user such as debit or credit card details, their passwords, OTP, mobile number, address, bank account number, date of birth etc. and fraud is done by sending fake emails to others from his email account.

Nowadays, cyber criminals are extorting money from people by calling them debtors without taking any loan through phone calls or SMS. Such blackmailing is being done mostly for small amounts such as Rs 2000 to 5000, so that financially weak people do not complain to the police. The impostors threaten that you have taken a loan from us and if you do not return the money, your offensive pictures will be made viral or will be shared with your relatives or colleagues and as proof those morphed pictures and videos are sent to the target. Taking loan from a mobile app is more dangerous than from a moneylender because the reach of such charlatans is beyond time and space, because most of the mobiles are made in China and their servers are outside India.

Be cautious of suspicious pop-ups during browsing sessions, ensure whether the URL has https://padlock symbol or not, do not share card information on websites or mobile or public laptop or desktop, delete attachments received from unknown numbers or email IDs immediately and ignore messages related to online lottery, casino, gaming, shopping or free downloads, then you can avoid the trap of suspicious hyperlinks forwarded through phishing mails or SMS or WhatsApp.

Also, never come under psychological pressure. Do not hesitate to seek police help if you receive a threat. Always be alert. Update the software of your phone, computer, tablet timely, use strong passwords, avoid opening unknown links, keep your personal information safe, be cautious while using public Wi-Fi, use antivirus and update it regularly, etc. Most importantly, avoid greed. In this case, caution is the only protection.

Satish Singh, Ahmedabad Based Senior Columnist, views are personal