Cyber ​​criminals sitting in these 3 countries are duping Indians, are you also being cheated?

New Delhi: These days, cases of cyber fraud are increasing very rapidly. Fraudsters are adopting new methods of fraud through the Internet and making people their victims. Although cases of cyber fraud are coming from all over the world, a large number of Indians are becoming its victims. It is alleged that cyber crimes are being committed mainly by criminals sitting in three South-East Asian countries Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. According to the Indian Cyber ​​Crime Coordination Center (I4C), 46% of the total cases of cyber crime from January to April started from these three countries. About Rs 1,776 crore was defrauded in these cases. I4C works under the Union Home Ministry for the prevention, investigation and investigation of cyber crime in the country.

According to a report by the Indian Express, data from the National Cyber ​​Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP) shows that 7.4 lakh complaints were filed between January 1 and April 30 this year, while 15.56 lakh complaints were received in the year 2023.

How many cyber frauds will happen between 2019 and 2024

• 2024 (by April): 7.4 lakh
• 2023: 15.56 lakhs
• 2022: 9.66 lakhs
• 2021: 4.52 lakhs
• 2020: 2.57 lakh
• 2019: 26,049

I4C discovered four patterns of criminals who commit fraud based in these three countries and their modus operandi is similar.

1. Trading scams
Such scammers advertise free trading tips on social media, often using pictures of famous stock market experts and fake news articles. Victims are asked to join WhatsApp groups or Telegram channels where they are given tips on how to make money by investing in stocks.

After a few days, the victims will be asked to install certain trading applications and register themselves to guide them to make huge profits. The victims start investing on the apps following the recommendations made by the cyber criminals. None of these apps will be registered with SEBI, but victims are usually negligent to check this.

Many victims deposited money in specific bank accounts to buy shares, and were shown some fake profits in their digital wallets. But when they tried to withdraw this money, they were shown a message that they could withdraw it only after a certain amount, say Rs 30-50 lakh, was deposited in their wallets. This meant that the victim had to keep investing, and sometimes, they also had to pay taxes on the profits they allegedly earned. Rajesh Kumar, CEO of I4C, said, “After analysing the data of the first four months of this year, we found that Indians lost Rs 1420.48 crore in trading scams.”

2. Digital Arrest
The second and newer method of cyber fraud is cyber fraud. In this, fraudsters call the victim and tell them that someone has sent them a parcel full of illegal goods, drugs, fake passports or other banned items. In some cases, relatives or friends of the target person will be told that their loved one has been found involved in a serious crime.

Once they found their victim (who was carefully selected), the criminals would get in touch with them on Skype or any other video calling platform. They would introduce themselves as law enforcement officials. The fraudsters would often wear uniforms and pretend to call from places like police stations or government offices. They would then talk about closing the case in exchange for some bribe.

Rajesh Kumar said that in some cases, the victims were put under digital arrest, which meant they were forced to appear before the criminals until their demands were met. Indians lost a total of Rs 120.30 crore in such scams during the January-April period.

3. Investment scams
In this type of fraud, the victims usually receive a WhatsApp message from a foreign number, allegedly from a company representative, offering to earn a large amount of money like Rs 30,000 while sitting at home. People are told that they have to help increase the social media rating of some organizations by giving five star ratings. After the work is completed, the victims get a code, which they are asked to share with their manager on Telegram. The manager asks the victims how they want to receive their money. Many times, small amounts like Rs 500 are also transferred to the victims for giving ratings on YouTube or Google.

The real game starts from here. The fraudster asks people to do pre-paid or merchant work, in which his/her earnings can range from Rs 1,500 to one lakh. The fraudsters ask the victims for some money in return, if they refuse, they are blocked. But those who choose the offer are told that the money and profits will come to them in a day. However, the next day the victims are told that their performance score is not good. They need to improve it by participating in new work so that they can get their money. Indians have lost Rs 222.58 crore in such scams.

4. Romance/Dating Scams
This was the most popular method in cyber crime cases. In this type of scam, male victims are trapped. Fraudsters pretend to be foreign women and propose sex or marriage. They also make plans to meet in person. After this, they usually get a call from the woman saying that she has been detained at the airport and needs money to get out of here.

The US intelligence agency FBI says about such scams that romance scamsters are experts in appearing genuine, caring and trustworthy. These thugs usually find their victims on dating and social media sites and try to quickly win the victim’s trust. Kumar said that Indian victims lost a total of Rs 13.23 crore in romance/dating scams in the first four months of this year.

Why do most crimes happen in South-East Asian countries?
I4C zeroed in on Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia after analysing data on NCRP, inputs from states and union territories and some open-source information. “Cyber ​​crime offices based in these countries employ fraudulent tactics by leveraging social media to lure Indians with fake employment opportunities,” Kumar said. I4C has found that many of the web applications used in the crime had Mandarin characters. “We cannot rule out any Chinese connection,” Kumar said.