Work-from-home or part-time job scams top cyber crimes in India

NEW DELHI: Work from Home (WFH) or Part-time job scams contribute to the highest number of cyber crimes reported in the country followed by illegal lending apps in the year 2023, as per the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), a part of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of I4C Rajesh Kumar on Wednesday addressed the Annual Press Conference at the media center.

Kumar said that scamsters majorly approach victims through digital advertisements, channels of online messengers, and bulk SMS. "We request people to avoid getting into such scams. We keep banning and tapping such fraudsters whenever it gets reported," he said.

He added that illegal lending apps are the second biggest tool used by scamsters to target people. These apps largely operate in countries like China, Cambodia, Myanmar, and others.

Indian government keeps reporting to regard cybercriminals to other governments of other countries.

"We have blocked 595 apps such apps that were involved in suspicious activities. We have also whitelisted 395 instant loan apps by RBI. Reporting of suspicious apps to Google and Facebook. Flagging of mule accounts to Banks and Fintech. Publishing of suspicious apps on Cyber Dost social media handles," he said.

The third largest source of cyber fraud is Customer Care Number and Android malware. In this fake customer care numbers are used or Android malware is installed to steal credentials like OTPs.

He added that impersonation and sextortion are the other two ways that are widely used by scamsters.

"WFH is the biggest fraud reported to agencies while sextortion largely gets operated from Mewat. It is underreported as victims avoid complaining due to various reasons. This year around 19,000 cases of sextortion were reported," he said.