NEW DELHI: The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre or I4C has proactively recognized and blocked over 1,700 Skype IDs and 59,000 WhatsApp accounts used for digital arrests, the ministry of house affairs (MHA) advised the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The federal government has additionally launched a complete consciousness programme on digital arrests, it stated.
“The central authorities has launched a complete consciousness programme on digital arrest which, inter-alia, embody; newspaper commercial on digital arrest rip-off, announcement in Delhi metros on digital arrest and different modus operandi of cyber criminals, use of social media influencers to create particular posts on digital arrest, marketing campaign about digital arrest via Prasar Bharti and digital media, particular programme on Aakashvani on digital arrest…”, the MHA stated in a written response within the Lok Sabha.
“I4C (has) proactively recognized and blocked greater than 1,700 Skype IDs and 59,000 WhatsApp accounts used for digital arrest,” it stated.
The problem of digital arrests additionally got here up throughout deliberations on the director generals of police/inspector generals of police (DGPs/IGPs) convention final week in Bhubaneswar, wherein Prime Minister Narendra Modi requested the police management of the nation to concentrate on digital frauds, and use of synthetic intelligence by the criminals, notably using deep-fakes.
The house ministry additionally stated that the federal government has printed a press launch to alert folks in opposition to incidents of ‘blackmail’ and ‘digital arrest’ by cyber criminals impersonating as officers of state police, Narcotics Management Bureau (NCB), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Reserve Financial institution of India (RBI) and different legislation enforcement companies.
It additional stated that the federal government and telecom service suppliers (TSPs) “have devised a system to establish and block incoming worldwide spoofed calls displaying Indian cell numbers seem like originating inside India.”
“Such worldwide spoofed calls have been made by cyber-criminals in latest circumstances of faux digital arrests, FedEx scams, impersonation as authorities and police officers, and so forth. Instructions have been issued to the TSPs for blocking such incoming worldwide spoofed calls,” it added.
Moreover, a state-of-the-art centre – Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC) – has been established at I4C the place representatives of main banks, monetary intermediaries, cost aggregators, TSPs, IT intermediaries and representatives of states/UTs forces are working collectively for rapid motion and seamless cooperation to sort out cybercrime.
The ministry added that greater than 6,69,000 SIM playing cards and 1,32,000 IMEIs reported by police have been blocked by the Centre until November 15 this yr.
Additionally, MHA stated, seven Joint Cyber Coordination Groups (JCCTs) have been constituted for Mewat, Jamtara, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Vishakhapatnam, and Guwahati underneath I4C overlaying the entire nation primarily based upon cybercrime hotspots/areas having multi-jurisdictional points by on-boarding states/UTs to boost the coordination framework among the many legislation enforcement companies.
A ‘Citizen Monetary Cyber Fraud Reporting and Administration System’, underneath I4C, began in 2021 for rapid reporting of monetary frauds and to cease siphoning off funds by the fraudsters, has saved over ₹3,431 crore in additional than 9,94,000 complaints, it stated.
