By Andy Mukherjee

On a hot and humid August morning last year, Biren Yadav was alone at his home in Gurugram, a New Delhi suburb, when his phone rang. The call was from a woman claiming to represent the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The caller seemed to know everything about Yadav, a 77-year-old former Indian Air Force officer. She read out his address, national ID and tax account number — all correctly. “One of your phones is transmitting antinational messages,” said the caller. “Unless the cyberpolice clears your name, we have to freeze all your numbers.”

That was the beginning of Yadav’s “digital arrest,” an elaborate scam that preys on India’s affluent. This is no small-time hustle. One ex-banker says he was conned out of 230 million rupees ($2.6 million) in August, and gove

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