Delhi Police untangles web of 'digital arrests' 7 linked to international cybercrime syndicate held

New Delhi, Jan 10 (PTI) The Delhi Police has busted a Taiwan-linked international cybercrime syndicate that allegedly defrauded around Rs 100 crore from people across India by impersonating anti-terror and law enforcement officers and placing them under "digital arrest", an official said on Saturday.
     Seven people, including a Taiwanese national allegedly coordinating the operation, have been arrested so far in the case, registered under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), IT Act and Telecommunications Act, police said.
     Investigators said several of the accused had previously worked in Cambodia-based scam centres and were allegedly recruited and funded by a Pakistan-based handler, while a Nepal-based layer is suspected to have remotely controlled operations.
     According to investigators, the cybercrime network targeted victims by making phone calls posing as officers of the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and other security agencies, falsely accusing them of links with terror incidents such as the Pahalgam attack and Delhi blasts.
     "Victims were told that arrest warrants had been issued against them and their bank accounts would be frozen. They were then placed under continuous video or audio surveillance, a tactic described as 'digital arrest', and coerced into transferring money to 'verify' their innocence," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations) Vinit Kumar said.
     The calls, police said, were routed from abroad but made to appear as domestic Indian numbers using illegal SIM box installations, allowing the accused to evade detection while instilling fear and urgency.
     The investigation, initiated in October 2025 after a spike in complaints nationwide, revealed that the syndicate was operating SIM box systems supplied and configured by Taiwanese nationals. These devices enabled international calls to be masked as local calls by bypassing telecom networks.
     Police said the accused further manipulated the system by overwriting and rotating IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers, causing the same phone number to appear to originate from multiple cities within hours.
     The first physical SIM box setup was traced to Goyla Dairy in Delhi following sustained technical analysis and field surveillance. Raids at multiple locations in Delhi led to the arrest of two alleged local operators -- Shashi Prasad (53) and Parvinder Singh (38) -- who were maintaining the illegal infrastructure, police said.
     Forensic examination of seized devices led to the identification of I-Tsung Chen (30), a Taiwanese national, whom police described as the principal technical operator of the syndicate. He was arrested at the Delhi international airport on December 21 after investigators allegedly lured him into believing the network in India was still operational.
     Subsequent raids led to the busting of SIM box modules in Mumbai, Mohali, and Coimbatore, resulting in five more arrests, police said.
     Police claimed forensic analysis linked over 5,000 compromised IMEI numbers and around 20,000 SIM cards to the module, with cybercrime complaints from multiple states involving an estimated fraud amount of Rs 100 crore.
     Recoveries include 22 SIM box devices, mobile phones, laptops, routers, CCTV cameras, passports and foreign SIM cards, police said.
     Further investigation is underway to trace money laundering routes, cryptocurrency transactions and identify remaining domestic and foreign operatives, officials added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)