The Supreme Court (SC) directed the Centre, RBI, and States to formulate Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) curbing ‘digital arrest’ cyber-frauds.
Key Directions Issued by SC:
- To RBI: Formulate an SOP within four weeks enforcing temporary debit holds on 'mule accounts' linked to cyber-enabled financial fraud.
- To States and UTs: Operationalize State Cyber Crime Coordination Centres and adopt e-Zero FIR mechanisms in consultation with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) within a four-week deadline.
- To Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC): Explore a shared liability and victim compensation framework.
- Also, IDC to instruct the CBI to investigate organized cyber-networks even if the cumulative fraud falls below the ₹10 crore threshold.
- To MeitY and DoT: Evaluate the feasibility of implementing time-based restrictions on telecom audio and video calls (Kill Switch) to disrupt extortion networks.
Digital Arrest and Related Issues
- Digital Arrest: It is a psychological extortion technique where scammers impersonate government officials (CBI, police) using doctored arrest warrants, to coerce victims (threatening with immediate arrest) into transferring large sums.
- Money Laundering: Extorted funds are rapidly divided, routed through multiple "mule accounts," and eventually funneled offshore.
- Challenges in combating Digital Arrest: Delayed fund freezing, weak inter-agency coordination, fragmented grievance redressal, and low recovery rates.
Pre-existing Safeguards:
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