Overview

• Scamsters used multi-way phone and WhatsApp video calls to impersonate telecommunications and law enforcement officials, keeping the doctor under surveillance and pressuring her to liquidate assets.
• Police arrested Lalji Jayantibhai Baldaniya after tracing siphoned funds through his bank account.
• Investigators are probing ties to Cambodia-based call centres that have orchestrated similar ‘digital arrest’ frauds against Indian nationals.
• Authorities have issued multiple advisories clarifying that ‘digital arrest’ is not a legal process and no law enforcement agency demands constant online contact or money transfers.
• An Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre analysis found that Indians lose about ₹1,000 crore every month to cyber frauds originating from Cambodia and other Southeast Asian hubs.