Digital Arrest Scam: How to Spot the Fake Police Video Call and What to Do

There is no such thing as a "digital arrest" under Indian law. No police officer, CBI team, customs official or judge will ever arrest you, question you or hold you on a video call, and none will ask you to transfer money to clear your name. If you get that call, hang up and dial 1930, the national cyber crime helpline. Speed matters: in a Kochi case from November 2025, an 81-year-old man lost about Rs 1.30 crore, and Kochi city cyber police got roughly Rs 1.06 crore of it back by freezing the money in a bank account in Srinagar after the complaint went in on the National Cyber Crime Portal.

• Is digital arrest legal in India?
• How does the digital arrest scam work?
• How to identify a digital arrest scam?
• What to do if you get a digital arrest call?

Is digital arrest legal in India?

No. The Union Home Ministry's Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has said plainly that the concept does not exist in any Indian law. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent part of his Mann Ki Baat broadcast on 27 October 2024 on the same point, and gave the government's three-word rule for these calls: Ruko, Socho, Action Lo. Stop, think, take action.

That single fact is your best defence. Everything the caller says after it is theatre, however official it looks.

How does the digital arrest scam work?

The script changes, but the structure is always the same. A call arrives, often from someone claiming to be a courier company, a telecom regulator, a bank or a police station in another city. You are told that a parcel in your name contains drugs, that your Aadhaar or phone number was used to open an account moving black money, or that you are named in a money-laundering case. Then the call is "transferred" to a senior officer, and the video starts.

On screen you will see what looks like a police station, sometimes a uniform, a logo, even a document with a seal. You are told you are now under arrest, that you must stay on camera, that you cannot speak to anyone because the case is confidential, and that the only way to prove your innocence is to move your savings into a "verification" account until the investigation clears you. Victims have been kept on these calls for days; in one case registered by Ernakulam Rural police, a Perumbavoor native working in the US was held for 27 days.

It works on educated, careful people, which is the part most coverage misses. Victims from Kerala reported in the press have included a 74-year-old retired central government employee from Ernakulam, as well as the Perumbavoor engineer above. The scam does not rely on you being careless; it relies on fear, isolation and the fact that most of us have never dealt with a real investigation and do not know what one looks like.

How to identify a digital arrest scam?

Any one of these is enough to end the call:

• Someone claiming to be police, CBI, ED, customs, RBI or a court contacts you on WhatsApp, Skype or a video call.
• You are told you are "under arrest" or "under surveillance" without anyone physically at your door.
• You are told not to tell your family, your bank or a lawyer because the matter is secret.
• You are asked to show your room on camera to prove you are alone.
• You are asked to transfer money or move funds to an account for "verification" or "safekeeping".
• You are shown an arrest warrant or a notice on screen or sent one as a PDF on WhatsApp.
• The pressure to act right now never lets up.

Real agencies send written notices through proper channels and expect you to consult a lawyer. Nobody legitimate is afraid of you calling one.

What to do if you get a digital arrest call?

Situation	What to do
The call is happening now	Hang up. Do not argue, do not share any detail. Tell someone in your house.
No money lost, but you want the number blocked	Report it on Chakshu, on the Sanchar Saathi portal (sancharsaathi.gov.in), which is meant for suspected fraud calls where no money has gone.
Money has already been transferred	Call 1930 immediately and file on cybercrime.gov.in. Then call your bank.
You are unsure whether a notice is real	Call your local police station yourself, using a number you looked up, not one the caller gave you.

The money row is the one that matters. Kochi city cyber police have said that when a complaint goes in through the national portal immediately after the loss, the chances of recovery go up. Fraud money moves through chains of accounts within hours, and a freeze only works while it is still sitting in one of them. Waiting until the next morning out of embarrassment only gives it time to move further away.

We have a fuller walkthrough of what happens after you call 1930, and a guide to AI voice-cloning scams, the other fraud that turns family trust into a weapon. Print the red-flag list above and stick it near your parents' phone; two of the Kerala victims above were senior citizens. More from Tech & AI.