3 min readNew DelhiMay 23, 2024 08:16 AM IST
First published on: May 23, 2024 at 03:19 AM IST
Analysis of data by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), a division of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has revealed that around 7,000 cyber-related complaints on average are registered with the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) daily and most of the frauds have origin in three Southeast Asian countries — Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.
“We have found that many web applications used to commit the crime are written in Mandarin, so we cannot rule out China connection,” Chief Executive Officer (I4C) Rajesh Kumar said on Wednesday.
“I4C has observed a significant rise in the number of cybercrime incidents targeting India, and about 45% of them originate from the Southeast Asian region, mainly Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos PDR,” he said.
Data compiled by the NCRP shows that there were 7.4 lakh complaints till April 30 this year; while there were 15.56 lakh complaints in 2023, 9.66 lakh in 2022, 4.52 in 2021, 2.57 in 2020, and 26,049 in 2019. “There are four types of scams — digital arrest, trading scam, investment scam (task based) and romance/dating scam. We found that Indians lost Rs 120.30 crore in digital arrest, Rs 1,420.48 crore in trading scam, Rs 222.58 crore in investment scam, and Rs 13.23 crore in romance/dating scam,” he said.
According to Kumar, cyber crime operations based in these countries employ a comprehensive array of deceptive strategies, including recruitment efforts by exploiting social media to lure Indians with fake employment opportunities. “These individuals are then compelled to engage in various cyber scams; investment scams, pig butchering scams, trading app scams, dating scams, often communicating via messaging platforms using Indian SIM cards to target Indians,” he added.
Kumar has claimed that according to open-source information, China was also a victim of such scams and around 44,000 Chinese nationals were brought back from these countries.
As reported by The Indian Express on March 28, over 5,000 Indians are suspected of being stuck in Cambodia and forced to carry out cyber fraud. According to government estimates, people in India have been duped of at least Rs 500 crore in the past six months.
The Andhra Pradesh Police recently arrested three local agents after some Indian nationals employed in a cybercrime suspected scam compound in Sihanouk City Cambodia protested. “The Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh has taken steps for their safety and 360 Indians are being sent back while some 60 people have been arrested by the local police. The Indian government is in touch with the Cambodian government for repatriating the rest of the Indians stuck there and being forced into cybercrimes,” he said.
On May 16, a high level inter-ministerial committee under the chairpersonship of Special Secretary (Internal Security) was constituted to coordinate with relevant ministries and departments for implementing comprehensive measures aimed at mitigating cybercrime originating from Southeast Asia,” he said.
"I4C has observed a significant rise in the number of cybercrime incidents targeting India, and about 45% of them originate from the Southeast Asian region, mainly Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos PDR," Rajesh Kumar said. (Representational Photo)
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