Indian stand-up comedian Ankita Shrivastav has spoken publicly for the first time about how she fell victim to an elaborate cyber scam that placed her under a so-called “digital arrest”, revealing how she lost 900,000 Indian rupees after fraudsters posed as law enforcement officials.
Shrivastav shared her experience through a comedy performance uploaded on YouTube, describing how she received a phone call from a man claiming to be from FedEx, who alleged that a parcel sent in her name to Iraq contained drugs.
She said the caller later connected her via video call to two men dressed in police uniforms, who claimed they needed to verify her identity and determine whether she was linked to the parcel.According to Shrivastav, she was monitored through a video call for nearly eight hours and was allegedly instructed not to switch off the camera, leave her home, or contact anyone. “The pressure was intense and after a while, I felt confused and psychologically exhausted,” she told the BBC.
Believing the situation was genuine, she approved transactions totaling 900,000 rupees before realizing she had become the victim of a scam.Shrivastav said she later chose to publicly share her experience to raise awareness, noting that if an educated and street-smart person could be deceived, “it could happen to anyone.”Her case comes amid a rise in cybercrime incidents in India, where “digital arrest” scams have increasingly targeted victims by exploiting fear and impersonating authorities.
