A digital arrest is a scam, not a real legal process. The moment someone says you are under digital arrest, hang up.
A digital arrest is a scam, not a real legal process. There is no such thing as being arrested over a phone or video call. Fraudsters posing as police, CBI, ED, customs or telecom officials call you, claim you are involved in a crime like money laundering or a suspicious parcel, and keep you on the line under threat while they pressure you to transfer money to "avoid arrest". The moment someone says you are under digital arrest, you are talking to a criminal. Hang up.
It usually starts with a call or message that sounds official. Your Aadhaar, SIM, bank account or a courier parcel has supposedly been linked to a crime. The "officer" sounds calm and authoritative at first, then turns aggressive. They may switch to a video call with a fake uniform and a fake office backdrop, show you doctored documents or warrants, and use a spoofed number that looks genuine.
Then comes the core move: they tell you not to hang up, not to talk to anyone, and to stay on camera while they "investigate". This isolation is the whole trick. As long as you are alone, panicked and on the call, you cannot check that none of it is real. They keep you there until you transfer money to a "safe account" for "verification".
Because it is engineered to. Real agency logos, spoofed caller IDs, official-sounding language, and now AI-generated voices and faces. The fear of arrest shuts down clear thinking, which is exactly what the scammer needs. Feeling scared does not mean the threat is real. It means the manipulation is working.
Any of these alone means scam: a call claiming you are under arrest or investigation by phone or video, an order to stay on the call and not tell anyone, a demand to transfer money to "clear" or "verify", or a threat of immediate arrest if you do not comply. Genuine investigations do not work this way.
Hang up. You are allowed to. No real officer will arrest you for ending a call.
Do not transfer any money or share any OTP, PIN or detail.
Tell someone immediately. The scam relies on you staying silent and alone. Breaking that is your strongest defence.
Report it. Call 1930 and file at cybercrime.gov.in. Report the number at sancharsaathi.gov.in. If you feel unsafe, call 112.
If you already paid, report within the hour for the best chance of a freeze, and read our first-hour guide.
Can the police actually arrest me over a video call? No. There is no legal concept of digital arrest in India. Any such claim is a scam.
They had my real details. Is it still a scam? Yes. Scammers often have leaked data like your name or partial Aadhaar. Real details do not make the call real.