₹1,777 CRORE Money India lost to various cyber frauds in the first four months of 2024

46 PER CENT of these cyber frauds in India originated from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia

₹120 CRORE Sum lost to ‘digital arrest’ scams in the first four months of this year

Major General Prabodh Chander Puri (retd) remembers the day clearly. It was October 15. The 83-year-old had been going about his usual routine when the phone rang in his house in Panchkula, Haryana. On the other end was a voice of authority—stern, direct and deeply unnerving. Claiming to be a senior official of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the caller informed Puri that his mobile number had come up in a financial scam investigation. To “protect his honour” and avoid immediate incarceration, he would have to submit to an interrogation. What followed was a chilling 48-hour ordeal. Puri was subjected to video calls that appeared to be from legitimate government offices. The scammers even created a horrifyingly convincing ruse: a courtroom simulation with actors playing judges, police officials and enforcement agents, complete with wireless static sounds and official-looking documents. Overwhelmed, Puri transferred Rs 82.27 lakh into multiple bank accounts in tranches. He was told the money was only a “refundable security deposit” to clear his name. By the time the truth dawned on him, the scammers had vanished, leaving Puri devastated and financially ruined.

Puri’s is not an isolated account. He is one of a growing number of victims of a sinister new cyber con playing out across the country. Set up as an elaborate ‘dark sting’ operation, it casts its web around a wide array of people: retired officials, lawyers, bankers, doctors, professors, journalists and even tech-savvy professionals, forcing them to part with their entire life savings. Among the most high-profile was the case of S.P. Oswal, chairman of the Vardhman Group, India’s largest textile conglomerate, this September. Cyber criminals staged an entire Supreme Court session