The Centre has banned over 100 websites involved in organised investment or task-based part-time job frauds, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has said. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), through its vertical National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit, had last week identified and recommended the websites, an MHA spokesperson said. “Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), invoking its power under the Information Technology Act, 2000, has blocked these websites. These websites, which facilitated task based/organized illegal investment related economic crimes, were learnt to be operated by overseas actors and they were using digital advertisement, chat messengers and mule/rented accounts,” the spokesperson added. “It was also learnt that proceeds from the large-scale economic frauds were seen to be laundered out of India using card networks, cryptocurrency, overseas ATM withdrawals and international fintech companies. In this regard, several complaints were received through 1930 helpline and NCRP [National Cybercrime Reporting Portal] and these offences were posing significant threat to the citizens and also involved data security concerns,” the spokesperson further said. “Citizens should refrain from doing transactions with unknown accounts, as these could be involved in money laundering and even terror financing and lead to blocking of accounts by police and other legal action,” the spokesperson added.
Centre bans 100 websites involved in organised investment crimes, task-based job frauds
