Cyber Safe India: Beware of ‘Work from Home’ Job Advertisements
Representational Image Created with Adobe Firefly Generative AI. By RMN News Service
Cyber Safe India: Beware of ‘Work from Home’ Job Advertisements
Citizens should refrain from doing transactions with unknown accounts, as these could be involved in money laundering and even terror financing.
In order to build a “Cyber Safe India,” the government has advised the citizens to take all precautions while interacting with enticing advertisements.
India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) says it is committed to curbing cybercrime and protecting people from cyber threat actors. Citizens are also advised to promptly report phone numbers and social media handles used by such fraudsters to the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP).
Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) is an initiative of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to deal with cybercrime in the country in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
The Centre, through its vertical National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit (NCTAU), has identified and recommended over 100 websites involved in organized investment / task-based – part time job frauds.
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The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), invoking its power under the Information Technology Act, 2000, has blocked these websites.
These websites, which facilitated task-based / organized illegal investment related economic crimes, were learnt to be operated by overseas actors and they were using digital advertisement, chat messengers, and mule / rented accounts.
It was also learnt that proceeds from the large-scale economic frauds were seen to be laundered out of India using card networks, crypto currency, overseas ATM withdrawals, and international Fintech companies.
In this regard, several complaints were received through 1930 helpline and NCRP and these offences were posing significant threat to the citizens and also involved data security concerns.
According to an MHA communique released today (December 6), these frauds, typically, involve following steps:-
- Targeted digital advertisements are launched on platforms like Google and Meta using key words like”Ghar baithe job” (work from home), “Ghar baidhe kamai kaise karen” (how to earn from home), etc. in multiple languages from overseas advertisers. Targets are mostly retired employees, women, and unemployed youth looking for part time jobs.
- Upon clicking the advertisement, an agent using WhatsApp / Telegram starts a conversation with the potential victim, who convinces him / her to perform some tasks like Video Likes and Subscribe, Maps Rating, etc.
- Upon completion of a task, the victim is given some commission initially and is asked to invest more to get more returns against the given task.
- After gaining confidence, when the victim deposits larger sums, deposits are frozen and thus the victim is duped.
As a precautionary measure, the government advises to:
- Exercise due diligence before investing in any such very high-commission paying online schemes sponsored over the internet.
- If an unknown person contacts you over WhatsApp / Telegram, refrain from performing financial transactions without verification.
- Verify the name of the receiver mentioned in 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.
- Citizens should refrain from doing transactions with unknown accounts, as these could be involved in money laundering and even terror financing and lead to blocking of accounts by police and other legal action.
Representational Image Created with Adobe Firefly Generative AI. By RMN News Service
