The Centre has cracked the whip on websites promoting economic crimes and blocked 100 such of them operated by 'overseas actors' facilitating task-based and organised illegal investment-related economic crimes. The Centre said these websites were operated using digital advertisement, chat messengers and a mule or rented accounts. The action came after the Union Home Ministry recommended the ban last week.
Following this, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) blocked these websites invoking its power under the Information Technology Act, of 2000. The Centre in its statements said the proceeds from these frauds were found to be siphoned out of the country by using card networks, cryptocurrency, overseas ATM withdrawals and international Fintech companies.
The government has also advised citizens to report phone numbers or social media accounts of the fraudsters to the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), the statement said, adding that several complaints have already been received through the 1930 helpline and the NCRP.
Elaborating on the various ways through which unsuspecting victims are targeted, the statement highlighted the use of targeted digital advertisements on like Google and Meta with alluring keywords like "Ghar baithe job" (Do jobs sitting at home), "Ghar baithe kamai kaise karen" in different languages from overseas advertisers.
Once the victim clicks on the links, an agent initiates a conversation and convinces them to perform tasks such as liking videos, subscribing, maps rating, etc. Once completed, the victim is initially paid some commission and is later asked to invest more against the given task and ends up getting caught in the trap. Once the victim invests a large amount, the deposits are frozen and the victim is duped.
The government in its statement therefore asked people to exercise due diligence before investing in such schemes and refrain from financial transactions without verification with unknown people on WhatsApp or Telegram.
It also cautioned the citizens that transactions with unknown people, who could be involved in money laundering and even terror financing, could lead to the blocking of accounts by police and other legal action.