Victims attended fake and elaborately staged virtual hearings
Scammers are impersonating judges and police officers in a digital scheme being operated in India, reported the Wall Street Journal.
Victims attend virtual hearings that are set up to look like judges’ chambers following “digital arrests” for offences like money laundering or drug trafficking. Fake police officers convince victims to allow themselves to be monitored on camera while their assets are investigated; victims are then convinced to transfer money out of their accounts under the belief that they are being protected by law enforcement.
Authorities indicated that such schemes capitalize on people’s fear of legal proceedings and of being tagged as criminals. One New Delhi-based victim was a retired pediatrician who was scammed out of US$1.6 million; WSJ noted that the elderly were often targeted.
India Supreme Court justice Surya Kant said that over 2021-2025, scammers have netted almost US$6 billion through digital arrest scams.
According to the WSJ, the scheme is already being replicated in migrant communities in the US, although it has not proliferated in the West due to a lack of scammers who can affect American or other Western accents. Nonetheless, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime senior expert Jason Tower said that sets mimicking the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and UK and Australian law enforcement agencies have already been discovered in Cambodian scam centers.
In a statement published by WSJ, Tower said the centers were “basically like a global supermarket of fake police stations.” While some operations have been shut down in India, investigators suggested that the sophisticated schemes started in Cambodia and Myanmar-based crime hubs.
Per law enforcement agencies in different countries, the sets are accurate down to small details, indicating that they were designed by people who examined the real locations. Scam operators were often lured into the work, with those liberated from scam compounds telling police that they were sometimes coached in acting and regional accents to improve their mimicry of officials.
