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WhatsApp told the Supreme Court it banned over 9,400 accounts linked to “digital arrest” scams targeting Indian users in a 12-week crackdown from January 2026. Many accounts operated from Southeast Asia and impersonated agencies like police and CBI. The action followed government inputs and was backed by new AI tools to detect evolving fraud patterns.

Meta-owned WhatsApp has banned over 9,400 accounts connected to digital arrest scams in India over a 12-week period starting January 2026, the Supreme Court was informed.

The disclosure was made through submissions placed before the Court by Attorney General R. Venkataramani in ongoing suo motu proceedings concerning the rapid spread of scams in which fraudsters impersonate law enforcement officials and judicial authorities to extort money from victims, Bar and Bench reported.

WhatsApp's internal investigation revealed that most accounts targeting Indian users were operated from scam centres in Southeast Asia, particularly Cambodia. Fraudsters used display names such as 'Delhi Police,' 'Mumbai HQ,' 'CBI,' and 'ATS Department,' paired with official-looking logos as profile pictures to create a false sense of authority.

The company said its enforcement action followed inputs from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Notably, while government agencies had flagged around 3,800 scam-related accounts, WhatsApp's own processes led to a far wider crackdown, more than double the number of accounts identified.