New Delhi: The Union home ministry’s cyber prevention wing I4C in coordination with the department of telecom, has blocked over 17,000 WhatsApp accounts operating from South Asian countries, including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
The crackdown came after the cyber wing received complaints through online platforms, the sources revealed on Thursday. These accounts were primarily registered in these countries where the fraudulent operations have been thriving, the sources further said.
This development comes in the wake of a detailed investigation, which revealed that fraudulent call centres operating in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos are often linked to Chinese casinos in Cambodia, working as hubs for organised cybercrime, the sources said.
They also confirmed that the blocked accounts were actively involved in trapping Indians through digital arrests and more than 50 per cent of such accounts had been active since January 2024.
The source revealed that majority of these WhatsApp accounts were used to dupe people through digital arrests through multiple SIMs and it was found that the locations of these accounts were located out of the Indian jurisdiction and after extensive efforts, these fraudulent accounts were identified and blocked in the country.
“Earlier the Indian agencies had blocked Skype accounts, and now, with the help of state cyber wings, the blocking of these WhatsApp accounts is expected to deliver a major blow to cyber criminals,” a source said.
While probing the cybercrime cases, it was also found that Indian nationals were lured to Cambodia under the guise of job offers and later were forced into executing online financial scams, they said.
The sources also said that digital arrest is one among such tactics employed by fraudsters, where they impersonate law enforcement officials to intimidate victims and then extort money. According to an estimated data available with the government, the scale of fraud is staggering and it is found that scammers siphon off approximately `6 crore daily through such means.
In the first ten months of this year alone, the scammers have caused losses amounting to `2,140 crore and the reported cases of 92,334 digital arrests till October this year.
Sensing the magnitude of the menace, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently issued a public warning, urging citizens to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities to the national cyber helpline.
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