WhatsApp Bans 9,400 Digital Arrest Scam Accounts

The Indian government informed the Supreme Court that WhatsApp has banned 9,400 accounts linked to digital arrest scams since launching a dedicated investigation in January 2026, as part of a multi-agency crackdown on rising cyber fraud targeting the country.

The status report, filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs through the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, detailed WhatsApp's actions over the past 12 weeks. The platform's probe, prompted by inputs from authorities including the Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, used a methodology to identify initial suspicious signals, map connected networks and enforce bans across broader criminal operations. Officials noted that while around 3,800 accounts were flagged by agencies, WhatsApp's internal tools uncovered and disabled a larger network, many operated from organized scam centers in Southeast Asia such as Cambodia.

Digital arrest scams typically involve fraudsters impersonating law enforcement or government officials via video calls from staged offices, accusing victims of crimes and demanding payments for supposed case resolutions. Victims are often kept under...