Digital Arrest Victims Lost Over Rs 2,000 Crore In 2024: Zerodha Co-founder Nithin Kamath

Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath has also voiced his thoughts about the digital arrest scams in India, revealing that victims have lost more than Rs 2,000 crore to such cases in 2024. In a detailed post, Kamath mentioned how the scams worked by instilling fear in people and taking advantage of their tendency to make mistakes when afraid.

Kamath also explained how the scam worked, stating that scammers posed as police officers and called individuals over fake contraband.

https://twitter.com/Nithin0dha/status/1907281675601559741

“They threaten to arrest you, take you to court, and then ask you to transfer money to their account to “close the case." Those of us who are educated may think that no one will fall for such obvious scams, but crores of educated Indians have fallen victim to these frauds," he continued.

Cautioning against the dangers of such scams, Kamath urged people to never react in a hurry when they receive such calls but instead talk to those who are knowledgeable, such as the police or lawyers. “The fraud works because we instinctively become afraid and will do whatever it takes to avoid trouble. Don’t react in a hurry. Also, block or don’t receive calls and messages from unknown numbers," he concluded.

This comes at a time when fraud cases concerning digital arrests have been reported across the country. The number of such cases has tripled between 2022 and 2024, Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar informed the Rajya Sabha last month.

Furnishing data on digital arrest scams and cybercrime, he stated that 39,925 incidents have been reported in 2022 on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), which tripled to 1,23,672 in 2024. Additionally, the first two months of 2025 have also shown a total of 17,718 cases, defrauding Rs 210.21 crore till February 28.