How cyber criminals operating from Southeast Asia cheat Indians

New Delhi: Criminals based in Southeast Asian countries of Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia trap large number of Indians in financial fraud cheating them of an estimated Rs 1,776 crore, The Indian Express reported citing the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).

The agency, which works under the Union Home Ministry, has found that 46% of such frauds were reported in the period between January and April this year.

Further expanding on the issue, the report citing National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) data said that there were 7.4 lakh complaints made between January 1 and April 30 this year.

However, in 2023 there were 15.56 lakh complaints, while a total of 9.66 lakh, 4.52 lakh, 2.57 lakh complaints were made in 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019 respectively.

The I4C identified four types of frauds from these countries, which includes trading scam; it is about trapping unsuspecting people using ads on social media, offering free trading tips.

They often come with images of well-known stock market experts and fake news articles and the victims are asked to join a WhatsApp group or Telegram channel to receive ‘tips’ on how to make money by investing in shares.

Soon the victims would be asked to install some trading apps and be directed to register on it for further guidance.

The victims would start ‘investing’ in these apps that are not registered with the stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which most victims would not care to check.

The bank accounts in which the victims deposited money to ‘buy shares’ will show some ‘fake profits’ in the digital wallets.

When it comes to withdrawing the ‘money’ messages will say that they can do so only when the amount cumulatively reaches a certain limit like Rs 30-50 lakh, in their wallet.

The victims will naively keep investing and often pay ‘taxes’ on the ‘profits’ accumulating in their wallet.

“After analysing data from the first four months of this year, we found that Indians lost Rs 1420.48 crore in the trading scam,” I4C CEO Rajesh Kumar was quoted as saying.

Another of their tricks is digital arrest where potential victims will get a call informing they are going to be the recipients of a parcel containing illegal goods such as drugs, fake passports or other contraband.

Subsequently, cybercriminals posing as police officials or law enforcement will demand money for ‘compromise’ or ‘closure of the case’.

The third of their traps is investment scam where a victims will receive a WhatsApp message from an overseas number, offering to earn a large sum of money, say, Rs 30,000 working from home.

Those who respond to the message are directed to complete some five-star rating ‘tasks’ on YouTube or Google reviews.

Once completing this, victims would be asked to join a “pre-paid” or “merchant” task, offering higher return of between Rs 1,500 and Rs 1 lakh, according to the report.

Those who refused to join were eventually blocked and others would get the message that they would get money and profit in a day.

The following day, the victims would be told that their “performance score” was not good enough and asked them to improve it engaging in new tasks.

Fourth trap is Romance and dating scam which is more conventional and many fall prey to it.

Victims, mostly males were lured by some ‘foreign women’ who would propose relationships or marriage and express interest in meeting in person.

At which point the victim will get a call from the woman that she had been detained at the airport and needed money to get out.

Early this year alone Indian victims lost a cumulative Rs 13.23 crore in romance/dating scams, according to Kumar.