Digital Arrest : Report
Following increasing reports of “digital arrests” by cybercriminals the central government has collaborated with Microsoft to block more than 1,000 Skype IDs used for online intimidation, blackmail, and extortion.
- Digital Arrest is a new and innovative tactic employed by cybercriminals to defraud gullible victims and extort money.
- The modus operandi in this cybercrime method is that fraudsters pose as law enforcement officials such as police, Enforcement Directorate, CBI, among others and manipulate them into believing that they have committed some serious crime.
- In certain cases, the victims are “digitally arrested” and forced to stay visible over Skype or other video conferencing platforms to the criminals until their demands are met.
- The cyber fraudsters deceive the victim into believing that he or she has been put under ‘digital arrest’ and will be prosecuted if they do not pay the scamsters a huge amount of money.
- The cyber criminals often force the naive victims to self-arrest or self-quarantine themselves, by tricking them into believing that they have been put under ‘digital arrest’ and cannot leave their house unless they pay up.
