‘Govt committed for harsh steps to curb cyber frauds’

While Vaishnaw did not elaborate on what the “harsh steps” could constitute, he said, “if you find any new mechanism or any new method by which people are creating those frauds, please come share with us… we will take necessary steps”.

On May 13, The Indian Express had reported – following its conversations with people involved in the recent spate of scam calls on WhatsApp – on the process through which people could easily create phone numbers from any foreign jurisdiction from within India itself.

The investigation had revealed this scam is a multi-million-dollar industry where fraudsters get their hands on international numbers, largely through three ways:

1) free access websites that generate virtual phone numbers of any country; 2) platforms that create such numbers for a fee that’s paid through cryptocurrency; and 3) a thriving ecosystem of people on platforms such as Telegram and eBay that generate such numbers.

Cybersecurity experts and scammers revealed that a small payment of around Rs 500 in Bitcoin or Ethereum earns the potential scammer a WhatsApp account with a phone number from any foreign jurisdiction. One of the scammers directed this correspondent to a platform called smscodes.io, through which phone numbers from a number of countries, including the US and UK, Poland, the Philippines, Indonesia and Mali, among others, could be created.

Apart from creating a phone number, the app also generated the OTP needed to create the business account on WhatsApp.

Another route that fraudsters take to acquire these numbers is by buying them from one of hundreds of dealers on platforms such as Telegram and eBay. The investigation revealed that an international number can be bought for about Rs 100, with the price coming down further for purchases made in bulk.