Within five hours while sitting at home in India, retired professor Kamta Prasad Singh handed over his hard-earned savings to online fraudsters impersonating police.
The cybercrime known as “digital arrest” — where fraudsters pose online as law enforcement officials and order people to transfer huge amounts of money — has become so rampant that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has issued warnings.
Singh told AFP that money was his life savings.
“Over the years, I have skipped having tea outside, walked to avoid spending on public transport,” the 62-year-old said, his voice breaking. “Only I know how I saved my money.”
Police say scammers have exploited the vast gap between the breakneck speed of India’s data digitalisation, from personal details to online banking, and the lagging awareness of many of basic internet safety.
Fraudsters are using technology for data breaches, targeting information their victims believe is only available to government authorities, and making otherwise unlikely demands appear credible.
Indians have emptied their bank accounts “out of sheer fear”, Modi said in an October radio broadcast, adding fraudsters “create so much psychological pressure on the victim”.
‘Ruined’
Mobile phones, and especially video calling, have allowed fraudsters to reach straight into people’s homes.
India runs the world’s largest biometric digital identity programme — called “Aadhaar”, or foundation in Hindi — a unique card issued to India’s more than one billion people, and increasingly required for financial transactions.