Digital Arrest Scam
✓ Last verified 14 Sep 2026
The short version
A 'digital arrest' scam involves a caller impersonating police or a regulator, claiming you're under investigation and must stay on a video call and transfer money to 'prove innocence' - a real, well-documented scam pattern, not a genuine legal procedure.
A caller claiming to be police, customs, or a financial regulator alleges the victim is implicated in a serious crime (often money laundering or a parcel containing illegal items), demanding the victim stay on a video call - sometimes for hours - and transfer money to a "government account" to avoid arrest or prove innocence. No genuine law enforcement or regulatory process in India works this way - a real investigation does not conduct an "arrest" over a video call or demand an immediate money transfer to avoid one. See our common financial scams article for how this fits the broader pattern of manufactured urgency plus a false claim of authority.
Want this worked out for your own numbers?