New Delhi: Digital arrest scams, though still rampant, are diminishing. Cases of digital arrest declined by 86 percent in 2025, compared to the previous year, while the amount of money lost by victims declined by 66.4 percent, data accessed by ThePrint shows.
According to figures compiled by the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), there was a sharp surge over the past two years in both the number of digital arrest cases and the financial losses incurred by victims.
After witnessing steep increases, including nearly a 465 percent jump in money lost in 2024, the trend now appears to be reversing.
In 2022, authorities recorded 39,925 cases, involving losses of Rs 91 crore. In 2023, the number rose to 60,676 cases—a 52 percent increase. Financial losses during the year climbed 272 percent to Rs 339 crore.
The situation worsened in 2024. Cases surged by 103 percent to 1,23,672, while the reported amount lost jumped 465 percent to Rs 1,918 crore.
The decline started in 2025. Cases dropped to 17,264, with losses totalling Rs 644 crore.
“Digital arrest scams had become a menace,” a senior MHA official told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Adding, “What helped was a series of awareness campaigns through SMS alerts, caller tunes, advertisements, and mentions in Prime Minister’s ‘Mann Ki Baat‘. Many of these scam calls were traced to networks operating out of Thailand, Cambodia, and Myanmar.”
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said at an event earlier this month that one person falls prey to cybercriminals every three and a half seconds and 97-100 people every hour in the country.
The official quoted above said cases are still being reported and the amounts are huge, but awareness campaigns have helped curb the menace.
According to another source, most digital arrest calls originate from “scam farms” operating out of Thailand and Cambodia. More than 500 people employed at these “scam farms” in Southeast Asia were repatriated to India last year.
This multi-billion-dollar cyber scam industry came under the radar of Indian investigative agencies after the sudden boom in digital arrest scams. Since then, many such calls have been traced to these regions, but investigations have yielded limited results.
The subsequent crackdown has had little impact, as the entire operation is based in foreign countries. Arrests of a few agents, mule account holders, or session initiation protocol (SIP) providers hardly dent the fortunes of the hundreds of “scam farms” operating on an industrial scale across Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia.
“These scam farms operate in a very organised manner. There is one vertical that collects data on people, including information from social media, Aadhaar, and PAN. They even have studios set up,” the MHA official said, adding, “The second vertical moves the money into mule accounts.”
“The only way to block the money is to react fast. There is a golden hour, and if the money is blocked through prompt action, it can be saved,” the official explained.
In 2021, only 6 percent of the defrauded money was blocked. By 2026, that figure had risen to 19 percent, preventing more funds from reaching fraudsters.
As far as cyber fraud is concerned, the financial loss in 2024 stood at Rs 22,845 crore, while in 2025, it was Rs 22,495 crore, the MHA official said.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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