Save Yourself From This Latest Scam Of Digital Arrest Involving Your E-Commerce Orders, And Couriers
By Chirali Sharma:
There is a rising case of courier or parcel scams, in which scammers contact a person through SMS or other messaging portals. They then claim that a supposed package or parcel of theirs has been confiscated by authorities because it contains illegal substances.
The victim will then be asked to transfer money to the scammers. But in the midst of this, another type of fraud, ‘digital arrest,’ is raising questions.
What Is This Courier/Parcel Scam?
These days, fraudsters impersonating employees of courier companies such as FedEx and others are trying to scam people out of money in something called the ‘customs scam’ or the ‘FedEx courier scam’. The scam begins with the victim receiving a phone call or message from someone claiming to be a FedEx customer service executive.
They then inform the victim that a package of theirs, linked to their Aadhar number or any other personal information, has been confiscated by the Mumbai customs department as it had illegal substances.
These illegal substances are usually banned drugs or narcotics as per most scams. Then the person claiming to be a FedEx employee transfers the call to someone pretending to be a senior officer of the Mumbai Police Cyber Cell.
The call is then transferred to a video call where the person impersonating the police officer demands the victim to reveal sensitive information like Aadhaar details, phone number, address, PAN card number, and more.
Once this is done, they then demand the victim to transfer money if they don’t want to be arrested or involved in a legal case. The victim, out of fear and not knowing better, usually transfers the money demanded.
Even an India Today journalist received such a call where a person pretending to be a FedEx employee said her Aadhaar number was connected with a parcel that had drugs. The journalist, however, did not fall victim to the scam.
In some cases, the victim is also “digitally arrested” which happened with a lawyer from Bengaluru who was ‘digitally arrested’ for 36 hours, made to strip on her video call as part of a “narcotics test” and then defrauded out of Rs. 15 lakh when the scammers threatened to leak her video online.
Is Digital Arrest Legal In India?
The Bengaluru-based lawyer was not the only one who suffered a ‘digital arrest’ by such scammers. As per reports, a police official from Indore, Madhya Pradesh revealed that an employee of an institute under the Department of Atomic Energy was also scammed out of Rs. 71 lakh by the same tactic.
Posing as Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) officers, they threatened the victim with accusations of him sending illegal advertisements and text messages and claimed that he could be arrested for money laundering and human trafficking.
A video call interrogation was done by a man impersonating a CBI officer, which eventually led to the victim, believing the threats were real and under fear of jail time, transferring Rs. 71.33 lakh into an account given by the scammers.
Digital arrests are another type of scam or digital fraud where scammers confine victims to their homes by making a video or audio call with someone taking on the identity of a law enforcement officer.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajesh Dandotia commenting on this said, “A member of the gang called the victim, working as scientific assistant at Raja Ramanna Advanced Technology Center (RRCAT), on September 1 and introduced himself as a Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) officer.
This fake Trai officer claimed illegal advertisements and text messages related to women harassment were sent to people through a SIM card issued in his name from Delhi.”
The ‘arrest’ here is the binding of a victim to their premise and not letting them turn off their mobile phone camera. However, this kind of arrest is not legal and will never be done by an official officer of the authority.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre also stated this in a public advisory released on Saturday where they wrote “Don’t Panic, Stay Alert. CBI/Police/Custom/ED/Judges DO NOT arrest you on video call.”
Reports also clarify that India has no legal provision for law enforcement that will allow them to ‘arrest’ via video calls or online monitoring. Only service of summons and the proceedings are allowed to be sent through electronic mode.
A Business Standard report wrote “The Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023 provides for the summons to be served electronically under section 63. The section defines the form of summons. It states that every summons served electronically shall be encrypted and bear the image of the seal of the Court or digital signature. Further, according to section 532 of the BNSS, the trial and proceedings may be held in electronic mode, by use of electronic communication or by the use of audio-video electronic means.
Originally published at https://edtimes.in on October 9, 2024.