Over 100 websites, which facilitated organised illegal investments and task-based part-time job frauds, were blocked following a recommendation of the Union Home Ministry. According to an official statement, these websites were being operated by overseas actors. The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), a wing of the Union Home Ministry, through its vertical National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit (NCTAU) had last week identified and recommended over 100 websites involved in organised investment and task-based part-time job frauds be blocked. Following this, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), invoking its power under the Information Technology Act, 2000, has blocked these websites, the statement said. These websites, which facilitated task-based organised illegal investment related to economic crimes, were learnt to be operated by overseas actors and were using digital advertisement, chat messengers and mule and rented accounts. The 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, the statement said. The I4C is an initiative of the Home Ministry to deal with cyber crimes in the country in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. These frauds, typically, involve the following steps:- 1. Targeted digital advertisements are launched on platforms like Google and Meta using key words like”Ghar baithe job”, “Ghar baidhe kamai kaise karen” etc in multiple languages from overseas advertisers. Targets are mostly retired employees, women and unemployed youth looking for part-time jobs. 2. Upon clicking the advertisement, an agent using WhatsApp / Telegram starts a conversation with the potential victim, who convinces her to perform some tasks like Video Likes and Subscribe, Maps Rating, etc. 3. Upon completion of task, victim is given some commission, initially and is asked to invest more to get more returns against the given task. 4. After gaining confidence, when victim deposits larger sum, deposits are frozen and thus victim is duped. As a precautionary measure, it is advised to:- 1. Exercise due diligence before investing in any such very high commission paying online schemes sponsored over internet. 2. If an unknown person contacts you over WhatsApp / Telegram, refrain from performing financial transactions without verification. 3. Verify the name of receiver mentioned in UPI App. If receiver is any random person, it may be a mule account and scheme may be fraudulent. Similarly, check the source from where initial commission is received. 4. 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.
Centre takes big action against 100 websites, know the reason
