New Delhi, October 27 : The Supreme Court on Monday expressed its intent to transfer the investigation of all ‘digital arrest’ cases across India to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), citing the widespread nature of this emerging cybercrime. The court also sought details of all First Information Reports (FIRs) registered in various states and union territories related to such incidents.

As per agency report, ‘digital arrest’ is a form of online fraud in which scammers impersonate officials of government agencies or the police, falsely accuse victims of breaking the law, and extort money through threats and coercion.

A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notices to all states and union territories, taking suo motu cognizance of a case involving an elderly woman who was defrauded by cybercriminals through this method. The court adjourned the hearing to November 3.

The bench considered the submission of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the CBI and stated that many of these cybercrime and ‘digital arrest’ cases originate from foreign locations such as Myanmar and Thailand. The Supreme Court directed the CBI to prepare a comprehensive plan for investigating these cases effectively.

The court observed that it would monitor the progress of the investigation and issue necessary directions to ensure proper coordination. It also asked the CBI whether it required additional resources, including external cyber experts, beyond the existing police infrastructure to handle such complex cases.

Earlier, the apex court had taken note of the growing number of online frauds, particularly those involving fake judicial orders used to intimidate citizens through ‘digital arrests’. It had sought responses from the Centre and the CBI by October 17, remarking that such crimes strike at the very foundation of public trust in the judicial system.

The court took cognizance of a case from Ambala, Haryana, where a senior couple was allegedly subjected to a ‘digital arrest’ and extorted of Rs 1.05 crore through forged court and investigation agency documents. The bench stated that this was not a routine criminal case to be left to the police alone but one requiring coordinated efforts between central and state authorities to fully expose the criminal network behind it.

New Delhi, Oct 24 – Delhi Police have arrested two men from Gujarat’s Surendranagar district for their alleged involvement in a cyber fraud case in which a woman from Delhi was cheated of Rs 7 lakh. Officials said on Friday that the accused were part of a network that arranged bank accounts for fraudulent transactions and withdrew the defrauded money for a commission.

As per agency report, the arrested men have been identified as 24-year-old Shoaibbhai Multani, a salesman at a tractor company, and 37-year-old Aslambhai Multani, who runs a dairy farm. Police sources said the duo played a crucial role in facilitating financial transactions for an organized cybercrime network operating across multiple states.

The case came to light when a nursing officer at a government hospital in Delhi filed a complaint stating that she received a call on July 19 from a person claiming to be a law enforcement officer. The caller told her that her name had appeared in a money laundering investigation and placed her under alleged “video surveillance.” He then tricked her into transferring Rs 7 lakh to a specified bank account.

Following her complaint, an FIR was registered and an investigation was launched. Police later discovered that 30 percent of the defrauded amount had been transferred to a bank account in Jharkhand, while the remaining 70 percent went to an account in Gujarat. CCTV footage from a bank in Surendranagar showed one of the accused withdrawing money using a cheque, confirming his involvement.

Raids were subsequently conducted in both Jharkhand and Gujarat, leading to the arrest of the two suspects. Another accused, Jitendra Kumar from Jharkhand, had already been apprehended earlier. Police officials said the investigation is ongoing to trace other members of the cyber fraud network.

New Delhi, March 9 – Delhi Police has arrested four cyber fraudsters accused of extorting ₹44.50 lakh from a man by impersonating Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers and using the ‘digital arrest’ scam. As per agency reports, the accused used this method to falsely accuse the victim of criminal activities and coerced him into transferring money to avoid legal action.

The scam came to light when Virendra Kumar Indora, a resident of Mayur Vihar Phase-1, lodged a complaint on January 29. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Abhishek Dhania, Indora received a call from an individual claiming to be a CBI officer, who falsely accused him of involvement in criminal activities. The fraudsters threatened him with legal action and pressured him into transferring the amount to avoid arrest.

During the investigation, forensic analysis of bank transactions revealed that ₹38 lakh had been transferred to a private bank account registered in the name of Jaipur resident Dinesh Singhadiya. The police found that the money was later withdrawn via cheque. Acting on this information, a police team raided Jaipur and arrested Singhadiya on March 5.

Upon interrogation, Singhadiya disclosed the involvement of five other individuals in the scam. Based on his statement, another suspect, Prashant Verma, was arrested for assisting in opening fraudulent bank accounts used for financial transactions. Further investigations led to the arrest of Prakash Choudhary, who was linked to Mahesh Nehra, the alleged mastermind of the scam with direct connections to international cyber criminals.

Choudhary facilitated money laundering by liaising with fraudsters through social media, helping Nehra operate fraudulent bank accounts. The police later arrested Gajendra Kumar from Kuchaman City, Rajasthan, who had assisted Singhadiya in withdrawing ₹38 lakh from the bank. Four mobile phones used for coordinating the gang’s illegal activities were also seized.

According to police officials, the arrested individuals were in direct contact with international cybercriminals involved in similar frauds across the country. Their primary role was to withdraw the fraudulently acquired money from banks using cheques and ATMs before handing it over to their foreign handlers.

Among the arrested, 26-year-old Singhadiya worked as a DJ assistant and a daily wage laborer in Jaipur, while 24-year-old Prashant Verma was also involved in DJ work. Prakash Choudhary, 21, had dropped out of college and was residing in Jaipur. Gajendra Kumar, a B.Sc. graduate, was preparing for government examinations.

Police are continuing their investigation to trace other possible connections in the fraud network and identify additional individuals involved in similar scams.

Noida, February 25: The Cyber Crime Police in Noida have arrested three fraudsters who allegedly duped a woman of more than ₹84 lakh by threatening her with claims of narcotics and objectionable items being found in a parcel in her name. The accused were arrested on Tuesday following an investigation into the elaborate scam.

Inspector Ranjeet Singh, in charge of the Cyber Crime Police Station, said the woman had lodged a complaint stating that the fraudsters used the name ‘Digital Arrest’ to intimidate her and extract a large sum of money. Upon receiving the complaint, the police registered a case and initiated an investigation into the bank accounts where the money had been transferred.

Based on the investigation, the police apprehended three individuals identified as Ram Singh and Akshay Kumar, both residents of Chandigarh, and Narendra Singh Chauhan from Mohali. Akshay Kumar worked as a bank employee, while Ram Singh was a bank account holder.

Inspector Singh revealed that the accused had been involved in several similar fraud cases previously. One of their accomplices, Umesh Mahajan, had been arrested by the Delhi Police on July 30 last year. The police are now working to uncover details about other members of the gang and expand the investigation to track all those involved.

The arrests mark a significant breakthrough in the ongoing crackdown on cyber fraud and financial scams, highlighting the persistent threat posed by online and digital crimes.

New Delhi, February 7 – In a bid to tackle rising digital payment frauds, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the launch of dedicated internet domains – Bank.in for banks and Fin.in for non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs). The initiative aims to enhance cybersecurity, mitigate phishing threats, and streamline secure financial services, fostering greater trust in digital banking and payment systems.

RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra, while unveiling the bi-monthly monetary policy review on Friday, highlighted concerns over the surge in digital fraud incidents. To address this, Bank.in will be introduced for Indian banks starting April this year, with Fin.in set to follow for NBFCs in the near future.

The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) will act as the exclusive registrar for these domains, with actual registrations commencing from April 2025. Detailed guidelines for banks regarding the implementation of Bank.in will be released separately, while a similar framework for Fin.in will be established later.

Additionally, RBI has introduced an extra layer of security for cross-border card-not-present (CNP) transactions to bolster digital payment security. While Additional Factor Authentication (AFA) has significantly enhanced domestic transaction safety, it was not mandatory for international online transactions. The new proposal will extend AFA to international online transactions made using Indian-issued cards, ensuring an added layer of protection where foreign merchants support this authentication mechanism.

RBI will soon release a draft circular seeking feedback from stakeholders before implementing these measures.

Faridabad Police has cracked a significant cyber fraud case, arresting 16 individuals and uncovering links to China. The fraudsters targeted local residents, collected money, converted it into dollars, and sent it to China, earning substantial commissions. Police seized a large number of passbooks, check books, hundreds of SIM cards, and cash amounting to Rs 14 lakh from the arrested individuals.

The investigation began after a complaint from a girl in Sector 15, Faridabad, who reported losing approximately Rs 7.59 crore in the stock market. Police Commissioner Rakesh Kumar Arya formed a team led by Cyber ACP Abhimanyu Goyat, resulting in the arrest of the accused from various locations including Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, and Ghaziabad.

Among those arrested are Prashant Kumar from Bangalore, Sayeed Mohd. Jishan and Sayeed Suhail from Uttar Pradesh, Hari Kishan and Ram Singh from Rajasthan, and others from Delhi and Jodhpur. The police recovered a mobile phone used in the crime from one of the accused, Rahul, leading to the arrest of Rinku, Inderjeet, and Kailash. Dinesh Kumar was arrested after interrogation and remanded to police custody for three days.

The arrested individuals are from neighboring states including Haryana, with direct links to China. The police are continuing their investigation to determine the involvement of more individuals in the scam, indicating that further arrests are possible.

New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS) Budgets are increasing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India due to the rise of AI, global economic uncertainties and evolving security threats, a new report said on Monday, adding that “India respondents appear better prepared for cyber attacks.

SMEs in the country reported the highest overall budget increase (92 per cent), with only 8 per cent reporting that budgets were either ‘remaining flat’ or decreasing -- a positive outlook when compared to other countries surveyed, according to the report by US-based enterprise software company JumpCloud.

“Companies in India are fast-moving and agile. They are seeking platform-based device and identity management solutions that scale to match their growth ambitions while also helping to meet emerging compliance and security challenges,” said Greg Keller, chief technology officer, JumpCloud.

Among top three security threats globally, network attacks topped the list, followed by software vulnerability exploits and ransomware.

In India, software vulnerability exploits topped the list (36 per cent), followed by network attacks (35 per cent) with multi-factor authentication (MFA) in third place (26 per cent).

Overall, IT admins are more optimistic about IT spending than six months ago.

About 92 per cent of India respondents expect budgets to increase either slightly or significantly, which is above the global average of 80 per cent, said the report.

Adoption of AI is accelerating in India. Only 4 per cent of India respondents have no plans to adopt AI compared to 13 per cent of the US respondents and 23 per cent of the UK respondents.

“Additionally, 82 per cent of India respondents think their organisation should be investing in AI, versus the global average of 76 per cent,” the report added.

New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) As Valentine's Day approaches, cyber-security researchers on Monday said that romance scams are on the rise in India and 66 per cent of people in the country fell prey to an online dating scam.

In 2023, 43 per cent of Indians became victims of AI voice scams and 83 per cent of those who were scammed lost money.

In recent years, romance scams have undergone a chilling transformation, merging traditional tactics with advanced technologies like generative AI and deepfakes, according to a new report by Tenable, the exposure management company.

“AI-generated deepfakes have become sophisticated enough that more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of Indians say they cannot differentiate between AI and a person’s real voice,” the findings showed.

Scammers are now leveraging generative AI and deepfake technologies to create more convincing personas in romance scams.

“I strongly advocate for heightened vigilance when coerced away from established platforms into private conversations, where the protective layers of the initial site are forfeited. Regardless of the involvement of generative AI or deepfakes, the watchword is caution,” said Chris Boyd, staff research engineer at Tenable.

Celebrity impersonations, particularly targeting older demographics, have become widespread.

These scams often originate on platforms like Facebook, tricking victims into a false sense of security, the report mentioned.

“A troubling trend emerging is one where scammers routinely target older individuals, especially those who are widowed or suffer from memory loss,” the report added.

According to researchers, requests for money from newfound connections should sound immediate alarm bells.

It's crucial to scrutinise photographs and videos that deliberately conceal background details, hindering online verification, they advised.

“Awareness and vigilance are our best defences against these heartless manipulations, ensuring that love seekers don't fall victim to the tangled web of AI-enhanced deception,” said Boyd.

New Delhi, Nov 7 (IANS) Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, on Tuesday said that those who find themselves impacted by AI-generated deepfakes should file first information reports (FIRs) at nearest police stations and avail the remedies provided under the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021 and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The minister said that given the significant challenges posed by misinformation and deepfakes, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued a second advisory within the last six months, calling upon online platforms to take decisive actions against the spread of deepfakes.

“Deepfakes are a major violation and harm women in particular. Our government takes the responsibility of safety and trust of all nagriks very very seriously, and more so about our children and women who are targeted by such content," Chandrasekhar said in a statement.

It is a legal obligation for online platforms to prevent the spread of misinformation by any user under the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021.

"They are further mandated to remove such content within 36 hours upon receiving a report from either a user or government authority. Failure to comply with this requirement invokes Rule 7, which empowers aggrieved individuals to take platforms to court under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)," the minister said.

He stressed that it is imperative that platforms take proactive measures to combat this threat.

"For those who find themselves impacted by deepfakes, I strongly encourage you to file First Information Reports (FIRs) at your nearest police station," said Chandrasekhar.

MeitY has sent advisories to social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, to take down such fake content generated via artificial intelligence (AI).

After actress Rashmika Mandanna strongly reacted against her deepfake video, a new morphed picture of actress Katrina Kaif from "Tiger 3" was also doing the rounds on social media.

New Delhi, Aug 26 (IANS) WhatsApp users in India on Saturday witnessed a new wave of scam where cyber-criminals started calling people on the platform from fake US numbers, pretending to be their senior office executives and colleagues, thus trying to give their modus operandi a new level of authenticity.

People working for a leading media company in the Capital, and even those who have quit the organisation, received numerous such fake international calls -- this time from US-based fake phone numbers -- from top executives, asking them to start conversation.

“Please get back to me as soon as you get my text, thanks,” read such messages, when names of the top executives.

This time, the international WhatsApp fake calls started with +1 (404) which is the calling code of Atlanta, Georgia, +1 (773) which is the code of Chicago, Illinois, and more.

In May this year, millions of WhatsApp users in India were left baffled at the amount of international spam calls they received, leaving many at the risk of financial and personal loss.

These spam calls with international numbers, mostly from African and Southeast Asian countries, along with fake messages from unknown users, flooded WhatsApp and Indians had nowhere to go.

Meta-owned WhatsApp has close to 500 million users in India.

Although the mobile numbers showed country codes of Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Ethiopia, it is not necessary that these calls are actually coming from these countries.

Most of these calls started with +251 (Ethiopia), +62 (Indonesia), +254 (Kenya), +84 (Vietnam) and other countries.

Another scam that is still being reported in India is that of receiving job offers via WhatsApp messages.