The government on Wednesday said it has blocked more than 100 websites involved in organised investment and task-based part-time job frauds, the Ministry of Home Affairs said on Wednesday. It said these websites were learnt to be operated by overseas actors and they were using digital advertisement, chat messengers and mule/ rented accounts.
“I4C, MHA, through its vertical National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit (NCTAU) had last week identified and recommended over 100 websites involved in organized investment/ task-based part-time job frauds. M/o Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), invoking its power under the Information Technology Act, 2000, has blocked these websites,” the MHA said in a statement.
It said the proceeds from the large-scale economic frauds were seen to be laundered out of India using card networks, cryptocurrency, overseas ATM withdrawals and international Fintech companies.
In this regard, several complaints were received through the ‘1930’ helpline and NCRP and these offences were posing a significant threat to the citizens and also involved data security concerns, the ministry said.
How These Frauds Are Done?
1. Targeted digital advertisements are launched on platforms like Google and Meta using keywords like “Ghar baithe job“, “Ghar baidhe kamai kaise karen“, etc, in multiple languages from overseas advertisers. Targets are mostly retired employees, women and unemployed youth looking for part-time jobs.
2. Upon clicking the advertisement, an agent using WhatsApp / Telegram starts a conversation with the potential victim, who convinces her to perform some tasks like Video Likes and Subscribe, Maps Rating, etc.
3. Upon completion of the task, the victim is given some commission, initially and is asked to invest more to get more returns against the given task.
4. After gaining confidence, when the victim deposits a larger sum, deposits are frozen and thus victim is duped.
How Can You Protect Yourself?
1. Exercise due diligence before investing in any such very high commission-paying online schemes sponsored over the internet.
2. If an unknown person contacts you over WhatsApp / Telegram, refrain from performing financial transactions without verification.
3. Verify the name of the receiver mentioned in the UPI App. If the receiver is any random person, it may be a mule account and the scheme may be fraudulent. Similarly, check the source from where the initial commission is received.
4. Citizens should refrain from doing transactions with unknown accounts, as these could be involved in money laundering and even terror financing and lead to the blocking of accounts by police and other legal action.
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