UP, Maharashtra top list of those freed from cyber crime centres in Southeast Asia

They landed at Hindon airbase and were taken to the CBI Academy in Ghaziabad, where they were questioned by senior officers of the CBI, NIA, and police from their respective states.

According to data compiled so far by the CBI after examining their documents, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab accounted for a chunk of those brought back. The other states are: Karnataka (34), Tamil Nadu (33), Rajasthan (29), Haryana (26), Telangana (23), West Bengal (20), Andhra Pradesh (19), Uttarakhand (18), Bihar and New Delhi (16 each), Jammu and Kashmir (14), Kerala (11), Jharkhand (6) and Himachal Pradesh (5). The documents of the rest are still under verification to ascertain their states.

During their questioning, investigators found a common thread — the manner in which they were lured into the trap. They claimed they were all approached by a placement agency, which offered data entry operator jobs with a good salary package.

“They accepted the offer letter, but got shocked after reaching the place where they were forced to commit online fraud by their employers. Now after their questioning, the concerned state police has been asked to take legal action against the concerned alleged placement agency, travel agent for duping them,” a source said. “No decision has been taken yet to take legal action against these people.”

Data from the National Cyber Reporting Platform (NCRP), under the Ministry of Home Affairs, shows fraudsters cheated people of Rs 551 crore in 2021; Rs 2,306 crore in 2022; and Rs 7,496 in 2023. A total of 1,37,254 complaints were received in 2021; 5,15,083 in 2022; 11,31,649 in 2023; and 17,10,505 complaints were received last year, according to the data.

According to data from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), a division under the MHA, about 45% of the cybercrimes targeted at India originate from the Southeast Asia region, mainly Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos PDR.

In a written response in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar said that the ‘Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System’, under I4C, was launched in 2021 for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters.

So far, an amount of more than Rs 4,386 crore has been saved in more than 13.36 lakh complaints, he said.

“I4C proactively identified and blocked more than 3,962 Skype IDs and 83,668 WhatsApp accounts used for Digital Arrest. Till February 28 this year, more than 7.81 lakhs SIM cards and 2,08,469 IMEIs as reported by Police authorities have been blocked by Centre,” the minister said.

As first reported by The Indian Express on March 28, 2024, more than 5,000 Indians are suspected of being stuck in Cambodia and forced to carry out cyber fraud.