Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
According to data received from the home ministry, Jamtara in Jharkhand has been supplanted as India's newest cybercrime hotspot by the Mewat region, which includes Bharatpur and Alwar in Rajasthan, Mathura district in UP, and Nuh in Haryana. Image Source: IANS
According to the Mumbai Police crime report, around 170 cases of part-time job fraud also called as ‘task fraud’ have taken place in Mumbai which is 10.5 percent of 1,619 cyber-crimes that have occurred in the financial capital in the first four months of 2023.
Newspapers and News websites have been flooding with instances of online part-time job frauds in recent months. Large number of people are being duped of money after receiving a ‘part-time job offer’ related messages via Whatsapp. According to the Mumbai Police crime report, around 170 cases of part-time job fraud also called as ‘task fraud’ have taken place in Mumbai which is 10.5 percent of 1,619 cyber-crimes that have occurred in the financial capital in the first four months of 2023. People have lost around Rs 5.5 crore in 51 cases out of the total 170 cases. Out of the 51 'like and earn' assignment scams, where three persons were defrauded of Rs 62 lakh, three cases have recently been resolved by the cyber police in Mumbai, and 12 people have been detained. In contrast to the 51 incidents and 12 arrests reported by Cyber police stations, the Mumbai police crime report showed 119 cases and 20 arrests across 93 police stations.
A citizen is contacted via Whatsapp with a job offer in a task fraud. Balsing Rajput, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber) said, “Once s/he agrees, s/he is assigned simple tasks such as liking YouTube videos, rating them or giving reviews for a small commission. Next, the fraudster encourages the person to do bigger tasks and invest to earn high returns. Later, the person realises that s/he isn't making much money and tries to withdraw his investment but fails. The fraudsters sever contact.” According to Rajput, task fraud is on the rise and people are falling for it in order to get the side income they desire. This is being exploited by fraudsters who trap them.
Recently, a woman living in Noida’s sector 61 was duped of Rs 4.38 lakh by scamsters through a task fraud. The con artists claimed to have a "part-time job offer" for her, and all she would need to do was like, comment on, and share YouTube videos from various e-commerce companies. She was then added to a Telegram group where she was given chores by the con artists. The con artists initially offered the woman a little sum of money for each task to gain her trust. Later on, though, they gave her a "prime task," and as a result, she lost Rs. 4.38 lakh.
A similar case was reported from Maharashtra’s Pune. A 28 year old man had reported an unidentified person to the Pune City Police for defrauding him online under the pretence of offering a part-time employment. According to the complaint filed by him, the accused reportedly demanded that he pay Rs 9.75 lakh online and carry out specific tasks using the Telegram app in order to generate income. Between April 3 and May 8, the accused requested money from the defendant on various occasions. The youth reached out to Pune police after learning about the fraud. A case in this regard has been registered at Chandannagar police station under sections 419, 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with section 44(d) (c) of the Information Technology Act.
The Rajasthani district of Bharatpur has been the source of the most cybercrimes in the nation during the past three years. According to data received from the home ministry, Jamtara in Jharkhand has been supplanted as India's newest cybercrime hotspot by the Mewat region, which includes Bharatpur and Alwar in Rajasthan, Mathura district in UP, and Nuh in Haryana. The most notorious cities are Bharatpur at the top, Mathura at number two, and Nuh at number three. Alwar and Gurugram in Haryana are ranked six and seven, respectively. The data indicates that this region near the National Capital Region is now the origin of 54.1 percent of all cybercrimes reported in India.
The rising instances of task frauds have once again highlighted the ugly side of technology and one of the most serious crimes in the country. According to various experts, cybercrime is one of the easiest crimes to execute and the fraudster can remain unknown for a long period of time.
Cyber fraud, commonly referred to as online fraud or internet fraud, is a crime in which a victim is defrauded of money through the internet. Fraudsters can target a person and get in touch with them via SMS, call, email, or other methods in order to obtain personal information. They can also send a malicious link to websites or apps in order to break into a computer, mobile device, or network and obtain sensitive data like bank account numbers, credit card information, social security numbers, and personal information.
Source: National Crime Records Bureau
The data from National Crime Records Bureau clearly shows that the cases of cybercrime in India are rising at an alarming rate. The cases of cybercrime nearly doubled from 27,248 in 2018 to 44,735 in 2019. The highest number of cybercrime case were registered in the year 2021. In 2021, 14,007 cases of cybercrime were registered in which the victim was duped of money by the fraudster. 1,624 cases of debit card and credit card frauds were also recorded separately. Around 4,823 cases of online banking fraud were also registered in 2021 along with 1,899 cases of ATM related frauds, 2,028 cases of One Time Password (OTP) were also reported.
Talking about the motive behind committing the cybercrime, fraud was the most common motive as out of the total 52,974 cases of cybercrime in 2021, 32,230 cases of fraud were registered. In case of motives, fraud was followed by sexual exploitation (4,555) and extortion (2,883). The total number of cases for investigation in 2021 stood at 73,884. In 21,229 cases of cybercrime, the accused was set free due to insufficient evidence or because he/she was untraced and lack of clues. Even though the statistics demonstrate the severity of the rising rate of cybercrime, it is troubling since they are based solely on reported incidents. Therefore, if we take into account the cases that go unreported, the actual incidents of cybercrime would be significantly higher.
In case of states, the southern state of Telangana had topped the chart as it recorded 10,303 cases of cyber-crimes in 2021. Telangana was followed by Uttar Pradesh which reported 8,829 cyber-crimes in 2021. The eastern states of Assam and Odisha also became the targets of cyber-crimes as Odisha reported 2,037 cases of cyber-crimes and Assam was fifth on the list with 4,846 cyber-crimes.
A woman doctor has been the victim of one of the "biggest" cyber frauds ever detected in the national capital, with the crime totaling 4.5 crore. The fraudsters pretended to be officials from several organisations, according to police authorities quoted by ANI. According to reports, the fraudulent plan was carried out using deceptive Skype calls in which the victim was intimidated into thinking she had committed a serious act that would land her in jail.
Due to their widespread popularity, Whatsapp and Telegram are progressively becoming into a haven for scammers. Recent media reports have emphasised the frequent international video calls that customers experience. All around India, there have been several reports of cyber fraud. Sanchar Saathi, a website run by the Department of Telecom, recently announced that 36 lakh Whatsapp accounts have been suspended in India.
As technology develops, cybercriminals adopt new strategies to prey on individuals and real money. Identity theft, phishing scams, credit card fraud, romance scams, investment fraud, and more are some of the frequent cybercrimes. We as responsible citizens and netizens, must learn to carefully navigate the cyber space and should remain vigilant at all the times. The Government of India has been taking a number of steps to address the cybercrimes. The National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal is a website run by the Indian government that enables victims and complainants to submit online reports of cybercrime complaints, including cyber fraud. This portal accepts complaints on cybercrimes, with a focus on those that target women and children.
