New Delhi, March 23 -- WhatsApp has been directed by the Union Home Ministry's interdepartmental committee (IDC) to introduce platform-level controls to curb "digital arrest" scams, where fraudsters impersonate law enforcement and extort money over video calls.The mandate goes beyond incremental safety updates. It calls for structural changes, device-level blocking, extended data retention, and AI-led detection, marking a shift from reactive moderation to proactive fraud prevention.

At the centre of this shift is a move to block fraudulent device IDs instead of just user accounts. This closes a long-standing gap where bad actors could quickly return using new credentials. WhatsApp has also been asked to retain deleted user data for 180 d...