- Imagine being "digitally arrested" in your own home by criminals dressed as policemen.
- It often starts with a phone call. You are told your phone number is linked to a serious crime.
- Or that the customs have intercepted a shipment in your name filled with drugs.
Even though they know they are innocent, most Indians will do anything to avoid a brush with the law. These scamsters prey on these fears, duping people into giving away their life's savings.
It's big business: Indians could lose Rs 1.2 trillion to cyber frauds over the next year, government data suggests.
Scroll wants to unearth how these scams work by tracing them to their source: South East Asia.
Fund our investigative reporting in Cambodia, where criminal syndicates have trapped Indians as cyber slaves to fleece others back home.
Armed with ground reporting, we will join the dots, explaining how a range of shifts in recent years have combined to create fertile conditions for these frauds: rampant data leaks, abuse of Aadhaar, lack of digital privacy, political misuse of investigative agencies, a jobs crisis, and more.
Our series will also tell you what you can do to protect yourself, and if you have been scammed, how you can seek redress.
Fund our special series by clicking here.
