For Dr. Ruchika Tandon, a respected neurologist at one of India’s top hospitals, August 2024 began like any other month. But a single phone call one morning plunged her into what would become a surreal week-long nightmare of psychological manipulation, coercion, and covert surveillance.

Scammers, posing as “Federal Investigators,” fabricated a digital arrest of Tandon and forced her to buy a new phone, made her take a leave of absence from work, kept her under constant video surveillance, and even made her hide under the bed when her relatives visited to check on her.

By the end of the harrowing ordeal, the 44-year-old doctor had lost over $300,000 – her family’s entire life savings.

It’s Just Starting: A Growing Wave Of Victims In India And China

It’s the latest terror sweeping India. Over the last nine months, Digital Arrest scams in the country have soared. Dr Ruchika Tandon is just one of thousands reporting nightmare scenarios to authorities.

From January to April 2024, authorities estimate that victims lost over $1.4 million to Digital Arrest scams. They believe this is just a tiny fraction of the total since most scams go unreported.

Over 6,000 cases of Digital Arrest have been reported in India since the beginning of the year.

These scams have also emerged quickly in China. However, there, they are known as “CyberKidnapping” cases. The name is different, but the fraud is the same, involving police impersonators who control victims to steal their money.

In January of 2024, A Chinese exchange student fell victim to a “cyber-kidnapping” scam, in which his parents were extorted for $80,000, was found alive but “cold and scared” in a tent in the Utah.

The case followed a typical pattern for cyber-kidnapping, in which “kidnappers” tell a victim to isolate and provide pictures as if being held captive – photos that are then sent to the victim’s family to extort a payment. The victims comply under the belief their family will be harmed.

Digital Arrest Scams Are Linking Back To Pig Butchering Scam Compounds

While the meteoric rise of digital arrest scams in India and China is devastating, where they originate is even more concerning – scam compounds in Myanmar and Cambodia.

Indian authorities have traced more than 40% of these scams to organized crime networks in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. Recent investigations uncovered a complex web of operations spanning four locations in Cambodia and two in Myanmar, where scammers, sometimes dressed as Indian police officers – complete with uniforms worn over pajamas – run sophisticated call centers dedicated to this digital deception.

In a recent article that appeared in India Today, scam compounds are now luring Indian jobseekers with foreign job offers in Myanmar and Cambodia to carry out the scams against people within India.

The Digital Arrest operations appear to be a shifting tactic of Pig Butchering Bosses to look for new creative revenue streams as the world becomes increasingly aware and resistant to the existing crypto-romance schemes.

Eleven Indian Nationals Arrested With Ties Back To Chinese Gangs

As the government of Indian tries to get a handle on the scam that is sweeping the country, officials just weeks ago arrested eleven Indian Nationals they say were “low level operatives” working throughout India on behalf of Chinese scammers.

The Indian Citizens were sent to scam compounds where they were trained and then returned back to India to carry out the scams for the Chinese gangs.

An Impending Wave Of Scams That Could Hit The US

While Digital Arrest and Cyber Kidnapping may seem like isolated scams outside of the US, Canada, and the UK, if history is any indication, this may be short-lived. As recently as 2021, Pig Butchering scams were rare outside of China, and there were no confirmed reports within the US. In less than 18 months, however, the problem quickly mushroomed out of control and has become the fastest-growing scam in the world.

As Pig Butchering becomes more commonplace, victims will be harder to fool, and these scam compounds will resort to new scam methods.

We need to be prepared for that.