NEW DELHI: According to the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), a division of the Ministry of Home Affairs, work from home (WFH) and part-time job scams rank highest among cybercrimes reported in the nation in 2023, followed by illicit lending apps. Rajesh Kumar, the CEO of I4C, spoke at the annual press conference at the media centre on Wednesday. According to Kumar, the main ways that con artists contact their victims are through online messenger services, digital ads, and bulk SMS. “We ask that people stay away from these kinds of scams. Whenever such fraudsters are reported, we continue to tap and ban them,” he stated.He went on to say that the second most popular tool scammers use to target people is illegal lending apps. Most users of these apps are located in China, Cambodia, Myanmar, and other nations. The Indian government continues to report to other governments about cybercriminals. “595 apps that were involved in questionable activities have been blocked by us. The RBI has also approved 395 apps for instant loans. Notifying Google and Facebook about questionable applications. reporting mule accounts to Fintech and banks. publishing dubious apps on social media accounts associated with Cyber Dost,” he claimed. Android malware and customer care number fraud rank third in terms of origin. Here, Android malware is installed or fictitious customer support numbers are used to obtain login credentials, such as OTPs.He continued by saying that the other two common tactics used by con artists are impersonation and sextortion. “The largest fraud that has been reported to authorities is WFH, whereas Mewat is mostly responsible for sextortion. It goes unreported because victims, for a variety of reasons, are reluctant to report it. Approximately 19,000 sextortion cases were reported this year, the speaker stated.
