The Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, on Monday expressed shock that well-educated people continue to fall prey to digital arrest scams, where fraudsters impersonate police officers or judges and extort money through video calls.
CJI Surya Kant also revealed that he received a complaint from a lady, who is known to him in official capacity, that she lost all her post-retirement benefits in a digital arrest scam. "She was crying, she lost all her savings," he said.
The Chief Justice made this revelation when Attorney General for India R Venkataramani mentioned the suo motu case taken on the issue, seeking adjournment from the listed date on the ground that inter-departmental meetings were ongoing.
Last year, the court had taken suo motu case on the issue, and later transferred the cases across the states to the CBI for investigaiton. Pursuant to the Court's intervention, the Ministry of Home Affairs has constituted a High-level Inter-Departmental Committee. They have submitted a report proposing the SOP to deal with such crimes.
During an earlier hearing, the court had also expressed the need for banks to develop some mechanism to alert the customer, if unusually large-volume transactions are being attempted from their accounts.
Senior advocate NS Nappinai, the amicus curiae in the matter, on Monday suggested that the intermediaries should develop a 'kill-switch' to terminate such transactions. She pointed out that victims often 'freeze' when confronted with threatening calls from fraudsters posing as authorities, making it difficult for them to respond rationally. In such situations, technological safeguards by intermediaries could help prevent irreversible financial losses.
The matter will be heard on May 12. The court was earlier told that nearly ₹3000 crore has been swindled by fraudsters through such scams.
Pertinently, 'digital arrest' has emerged as one of the most insidious cyber frauds in the country. There are increasing reports of incidents in which scammers masquerading as police officers or officials of central investigative agencies trap victims in a web of fear and fabricated legality, extracting large sums of money through sustained psychological pressure.
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