Digital fraud scam: India is moving towards digital economy rapidly, but with this, cases of digital fraud have also increased to dangerous levels. The thugs are now trapping people in their trap using new technical methods and looting crores of rupees. The government and the RBI are constantly taking steps, but there are challenges.

Recently, a woman from Gurugram fell victim to a scam called “Digital Arrest” and lost Rs 5.85 crore. In September 2024, some thugs made a video call as a law enforcement officer. The woman and her son were threatened to be sent to jail by showing fake IDs. Due to fear, the woman transferred Rs 2.8 crore on the first day and sent Rs 3 crore again the next day.

Government and RBI concern

In some cases, bank workers have also been found to be part of this fraud. Pratap Kesari Pradhan, a bank employee from Bangalore, was arrested by the Cybercrime Police of Hyderabad. He was a Customer Relations Officer at AU Small Finance Bank and opened fake bank accounts for thugs and shared details on WhatsApp.

There have been many such cases across the country, which show that despite government efforts and the clutches of RBI, common people are falling prey to fast. RBI Chief Sanjay Malhotra expressed serious concern over the issue on 27 January 2025 with the CEO of banks. It is estimated that about Rs 2,500 crore has been lost in digital scams in the last two years.

According to experts, the fraudsters often cheat people by creating an atmosphere of fear. In such a situation, people will have to be cautious and understand that no government agency threatens to take action on phone calls. In the event of cyber fraud, immediately call the National Cyber ​​Fraud Helpline Number 1930 or file a complaint on cybercrime.gov.in. Apart from this, always keep bank alerts active so that information of every transaction can be found immediately.

Also read: Bank fraud case: File charge sheet against Anil Ambani-Rana Kapoor

If you also rely on the investment or job offer from an unknown number, then this news is important for you. A recent report states that the telecom department (DOT) has blacklisted SIM cards from 3 to 4 lakhs so far from a special AI-based system. All these numbers were allegedly associated with fraud and scams. For this, Dot has prepared a special financial fraud risk indicator (FRI) system, which was launched a few months ago.

Latest of ET Report According to, this FRI system of DOT has blocked 3 to 4 lakh SIM cards so far. The tool is reportedly detecting around 2,000 mobile numbers every day, which are mostly associated with jobs and investment.

A senior DOT official told Publication that as soon as a mobile number is marked as a “high risk” through FRI, the system also discovers other SIM cards associated with that number on the network. This work is done by AI-powered pattern matching. That is, not only one number, the entire network attached to it is tracked.

Due to this system, last month, UPI platforms, such as Google Pay, PhonePe and Paytm, have been able to stop a potential fraud transactions worth several crores.

In July 2025, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) advised all banks, whether they are commercial, payment banks or cooperative banks, to integrate the FRI system in their platform. After this, the processing speed and action time have also been reduced by making some improvement in the FRI system.