New Delhi – Jamtara and Mevat are now the main hotspots for Internet fraud, where 46% of scammed funds have been accounted for cybercrime scams in investment scamdigital arrest fraud, transaction fraud and dating scam. This is found naturally in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.
According to Rajesh Kumar, Chief Executive of India’s Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), organized cybercrime gangs operate “corporate style” out of these nations’ compounds recruiting through illegal recruiting agencies targeted towards employment opportunities in India that eventually end up deceiving their fellow citizens.
Between January and April this year, 62,587 investment scams with a loss of Rs 222 crore were reported from Southeast Asia. Also lost was Rs 120 crore as a result of 4600 arrests made online. Furthermore, over 1725 romance/dating scams with a loss of Rs 130 million were recorded in South East Asia so far this year. In it also saw an increase in the number of cases involving large-scale financial crimes; some sixty incidents were reported to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal amounting to a total sum of Rs.70,61 crore whereby I4C saved Rs 8.127 crores from being swindled away by criminals working on that platform alone. Close cooperation between I4C and police has enabled freezing 3.2 lakh mule accounts over the past four months with blocking more than3k URLs and 595 apps based on IT Act followed by suspension 53 apps since July 2023 Thousands SIM cards were seized together with over 80000 IMEI numbers.
Indians are lured into Southeast Asia’s organized cybercrime factories – found in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Delhi – by fake job advertisements put out by illegal recruiters who make them believe so through Social media ads that pledge immediate prosperity without fail thus misleading gullible Indian victims into investing in them. Or romance/dating scams. “These gangs operate in an organized manner, starting from scamming venues…many of them had earlier links with casinos,” Kumar said.
He added that the proceeds made from illicit activities of cyber crime originating from Southeast Asia are laundered through complex financial channels such as Indian bank accounts, cryptocurrency transactions and cash withdrawals etc.
Three illegal recruiters were arrested by Visakhapatnam hotspots Cyber Crime Police in May this year for sending foolish youngsters to Cambodia. Similar arrests were made in Odisha. The Embassy of India in Phnom Penh looks after Indian workers recruited by these agents. These camps have seen about 360 Indians being rescued while 60 more are soon on their way home.
Earlier this month, the Indian Government constituted an inter-ministerial committee comprising representatives from different law enforcement and intelligence agencies to handle the influx of transnational organized hotspots cybercrime against Indians which has been experienced recently in the Southeast Asian country.
