A Comedian's Harrowing Experience with a Digital Scam in India

Mon Jun 01 2026 09:44:51 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Mumbai comedian Ankita Shrivastav shares her terrifying experience with a digital scam that left her financially devastated, raising awareness about the increasing prevalence of cyber fraud in India.

Ankita Shrivastav, a Mumbai-based stand-up comedian, fell victim to a sophisticated scam where scammers impersonating police placed her under 'digital arrest' for a fake drug-related crime. Over eight hours, they extorted nearly 900,000 rupees from her. With increasing cybercrimes in India, her experience highlights the growing risks individuals face in the digital age.

Hello ma'am, I'm calling from FedEx. We've been alerted by police that a courier you sent to Iraq contains drugs. This is what a man on the other end of the phone told Ankita Shrivastav, a stand-up comedian based in Mumbai city, one afternoon in October 2024. What followed was one of the most harrowing experiences of her life, Shrivastav says, but she never spoke about it publicly until this April, when she performed a comedy sketch based on the experience.

In the almost 30-minute video uploaded on her YouTube channel, Shrivastav narrates how the person on the phone asked her to make a video call and connected her with two men in police uniform who placed her under digital arrest until they could verify her identity and confirm that she wasn't the person who had sent the courier.

For the next eight hours, the policemen monitored Shrivastav via a video calling app on her laptop. She wasn't allowed to switch off her camera, leave the house or meet or speak to anyone. They asked her numerous questions, including about her bank accounts and transaction history, all the while reminding her how grave the case was and how much trouble she could be in.

The pressure was intense and after a while, I felt confused and psychologically exhausted. I just wanted the ordeal to end, Shrivastav told the BBC. She went on to approve transactions worth 900,000 rupees ($9,300; £6,700) at the behest of the so-called policemen, only to realise later that the entire operation was a scam and that she had lost her money.

'You're educated, how did you get scammed? - this is what anyone I spoke to about my experience told me, Shrivastav says. And that's also a question I have repeatedly asked myself.

Shrivastav isn't alone. According to the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report for the year 2023-2024, there was a nearly 18% increase in cybercrimes year-on-year, with Indians losing more than 220bn rupees to digital fraud. In 2024, 101,928 cybercrimes were registered, an almost 50% increase from 2021. 'Digital arrests' - where criminals impersonate law enforcement or government officials to falsely accuse victims of a crime and intimidate them into staying on a video call to extort money - are among the most frequently reported scams in the country.

Experts say that while the increase in cases could reflect better reporting of cybercrimes, it also underscores the changing nature of criminal activity. In 2020, the federal government launched the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) to tackle cybercrime nationwide. But data suggests that cybercrime isn't letting up. Soumya Gupta, a journalist and author of the book Bharat Bluff: Inside the cons of India's internet revolution, says that the boom in internet connections and smartphones has put people at increased risk of falling prey to digital scams. According to government data, over 86% of households are now connected to the internet.

Gupta emphasizes the importance of being cautious about online sharing and suggests that if something feels off, individuals should stop and seek help. As Shrivastav poignantly states, If I - an educated, urban woman who considers herself to be street-smart - could get scammed, it could happen to anyone.