Cyber slavery: Rs 10,188 cr scammed from India, TN CB-CID cautions job aspirants

CHENNAI: The state police appealed to freshly graduated students and job aspirants to be wary of agents promising jobs in Southeast Asian countries as instances of gullible youth being engaged in ‘cyber slavery’ to defraud their own citizens through online scams have seen a rise.

In the last 14 months, from January 2023 to February 2024, scam money taken out of India amounts to Rs 10,188 crore, an official statement from the TN police said, citing the Ministry of Home Affairs’s I4C (Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre) report.

Through social media, unemployed youth with basic knowledge of computers and English are recruited through illegal manpower agencies and taken on tourist visas to Thailand and then to Laos and Cambodia and detained in wire-fenced compounds.

“They were forced to commit cyber frauds like FedEx scams, investment scams, illegal lending apps, matrimonial scams, romantic scams, etc. The passports of the victims are forcibly taken away and they are even subjected to cruelty like physical abuse, torture and electric shocks, if they refused to work. Ransom was demanded for the release of the victims to return back to their own country,” the statement said after interviewing rescued victims.

Since 2022, the state police started registering cases against such illegal recruiting agencies and the information was passed on to I4C and otherer central agencies.

The I4C met with agencies and shared data on passengers who have not returned to the concerned states after going to South Asian Countries. Tamil Nadu Police received details of 1285 such passengers, and the CB-CID received details of 186 victims who returned to Tamil Nadu. CB-CID has so far registered nine cases across the state under the Human Trafficking and Indian Emigration Act, and recruiters from 10 illegal agencies were arrested.

CB-CID has established contact with 1155 persons, of the 1285 passengers provided by I4C, and their family members and found that most of them have travelled for studying and other jobs not related to cyber frauds.

“The efforts to trace 114 passengers in the list is under progress,” the release added.

Any information which will help in the prevention of such cyber-crime can be communicated on the following numbers:

SP NRI Cell (DGP Office) - 9498654347; Helpline numbers of Commissionerate of Rehabilitation and Welfare of

Non Resident Tamils: 18003093793 (For relatives in India), 8069009901 (For victims abroad), 8069009900 (Missed call)