Digital arrest scams in India tripled from 2022 to 2024, with losses soaring 21 times to Rs 19,35.51 crore. The government blocked suspicious accounts and launched awareness campaigns to curb cybercrime.

The Rajya Sabha was notified on March 12, 2025, that the number of digital arrest scams and associated cybercrimes in the nation nearly tripled in the middle of 2022 and 2024, with the amount of money deceived increasing by 21 times during that time.

The Minister of State for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, answered a question by giving details about digital arrest frauds and related cybercrimes that have been reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) during the previous three years. 39,925 of these occurrences were recorded in 2022, with the total proceeds of the fraud amounting to Rs 91.14 crore.

The overall amount of cheated money recorded on the portal increased by an astounding 21 times to Rs 19,35.51 crore in 2024, while the number of such cases nearly tripled to 1,23,672.

Data shows that 17,718 incidents totalling Rs 210.21 crore in fraud were reported up to February 28 in the first two months of 2025.

“Cybercrime incidents reported for digital arrest on this portal, their conversion into FIRs and subsequent action thereon are handled by the state/UT law enforcement agencies concerned, as per the provisions of the law,” Kumar said.

The Union Home Ministry’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has proactively detected and blocked around 3,962 Skype IDs and 83,668 WhatsApp accounts that are used for digital arrest, the minister stated. In 2021, the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System was introduced under I4C to prevent financial fraudsters from stealing money and to enable prompt reporting of financial frauds.

“nearly 13.36 lakh complaints have resulted in savings of nearly Rs 4,386 crore to date. For assistance in filing online cyber complaints, a toll-free helpline number, 1930, has been operationalized, according to Kimar.

According to the minister, I4C and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have started a caller tone campaign to increase awareness of cybercrime and promote the NCRP and helpline number 1930 to combat the threat.

“The caller tune is also being played in regional languages, delivered 7-8 times a day by the telecom service providers (TSPs),” the minister said.

The Central government and the TSPs have developed a method to detect and reject incoming overseas spoof calls that display Indian mobile numbers and seem to be coming from within India, Kumar said in response to a second inquiry about the matter.

“TSPs have received instructions to block these inbound international fake calls. According to police officials, the Indian government has blocked 2,08,469 IMEIs and about 7.81 lakh SIM cards as of February 28, 2025,” Kumar stated.

The minister responded to a follow-up question by stating that on September 10, 2024, 14C, in partnership with banks and financial organizations, established a suspect registry of cyber criminals for digital arrest.

“So far, more than eight lakh suspect records and over 20 lakh mule accounts have been shared with the participating entities of the suspect registry, saving more than Rs 2,889 crore,” Kumar said.