What is cyber slavery, whose victims are Indian youth being tortured with shock treatment abroad

New Delhi: These days, cases of cyber fraud have increased a lot in the country. Some of them are committed by Indians living abroad, but under compulsion… Actually, Indians who go to Cambodia and Laos in search of jobs are being forcibly held hostage and forced to do this work. Not only this, they are also physically exploited and they can also be given shock treatment. Now you can understand to what extent they are tortured to cheat their own Indian brothers and sisters. To stop these cases, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, Central Intelligence Agencies and NIA are working together. Recently a meeting was held in the office of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, where social media intermediaries were urged to actively curb these activities.

How Indians are getting trapped in the trap of foreigners

A senior Home Ministry official said that the criminals running the entire system publish advertisements on social media sites and spend a lot on these advertisements. Along with this, they are also in contact with some fraudulent agents of India who lure the youth with jobs abroad. Fraudulent companies ask Indian agents to lure the youth with jobs in countries like Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. After which the Indian youth are interviewed and the candidates are shortlisted and then their tickets are booked after taking money from the candidates.

The real fraud starts when the candidate reaches abroad. When the candidate goes to the company’s place to work, first of all he/she is taken to a place where his/her passport is deposited. After that the fraudulent companies send him/her to different places where he/she is asked to cheat Indians. he/she is given a list of Indian numbers along with a system. Here if someone refuses to obey them, they are given shock treatment and they are not given passports to go home. Now they have no choice and they cheat Indians even if they don’t want to. Let us tell you that this kind of cyber crime by keeping them hostage is called cyber slavery.

What was found in the NIA investigation

While investigating a case of cyber fraud and human trafficking, the NIA team raided several places in Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan in search of suspects. Along with this, while taking action against fraudulent travel agents, NIA teams searched five places. These places were linked to the associates and offices of the main accused Balwant alias Bobby Kataria. During the search, it was found that the suspect used to smuggle people for a cyber fraud company in Laos. During this, it was also revealed that the human trafficking syndicate operated from Gurugram and other areas within and outside India. Which used to recruit people from India to the Golden Triangle SEZ in Laos.

how to transfer money

According to I4C, these fake call centers use a multilayer bank transfer system. Which transfers money through nine banks before converting it into crypto currency or withdrawing it abroad. In the year 2024, people doing cyber slavery in countries like Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar have swindled more than Rs 7,061 crore in four months.