Indians lost Rs 120.3 crore in “digital arrest” frauds between January and April this year, The Indian Express reported on Monday citing government cybercrime data.

Criminals usually orchestrate the fraud by posing as law enforcement officers, often wearing uniforms and making video calls to victims from locations made to resemble government offices or police stations. They demand money for a “compromise” and “closure of a case” against the victims.

In some cases, the victims are “digitally arrested”, with the scamsters claiming that the persons are required to be visible until their demands are met.

This method of fraud has become more prevalent, according to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, which monitors cyber crimes at the national level through the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned citizens against this method of cyber fraud.

“There is no system like digital arrest under the law,” Modi said in his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio address. “No government agency will ever contact you via phone or video call for such an investigation.”

The coordination centre found that 46% of the cyber frauds reported between January and April originated in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, the newspaper reported. Victims cumulatively lost an estimated Rs 1,776 crore during this period.

Data from the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal shows that 7.4 lakh complaints were registered during the first four months of this year. In the first six months of the year, the losses from financial fraud reported on the home ministry’s cybercrime portal and the 1930 helpline amounted to Rs 11,269 crore, The Hindu reported.

In contrast, 15.5 lakh complaints were made in all of 2023.

In 2022, there were 9.6 lakh complaints and about 4.5 lakh complaints were filed in 2021.

The coordination centre categorises these cybercrimes into four types of scams: digital arrest, trading, investment-related and romance/dating scams.

Indians lost Rs 1,420.4 crore in trading scams and Rs 222.5 crore in investment-related scams. About Rs 13.2 crore were lost in romance/dating scams, The Indian Express quoted the coordination centre’s Chief Executive Officer Rajesh Kumar as having said in May.