The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) blocked over 100 websites involved in organized investment/task based – part time job frauds on the recommendation of Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) through its vertical National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit (NCTAU), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed on Wednesday.
MHA said that these websites facilitated task based/organized illegal investment related economic crimes and were being operated by overseas actors using digital advertisement, chat messengers and mule/rented accounts. It was also learnt that proceeds from the large-scale economic frauds were seen to be laundered out of India using card network, crypto currency, overseas ATM withdrawals and international Fintech companies, it added.
The ministry informed that several complaints were received through 1930 helpline and National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and these offences were posing significant threat to the citizens and also involved data security concerns.
These frauds, typically, involve 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 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 given task.
4. After gaining confidence, when victim deposits larger sum, deposits are frozen and thus victim is duped.
As 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.
