Indian migrants are falling in a new type of trap: money-making jobs in the Southeast Asia Region. They are being made to force people to invest in cryptocurrency-Apps or in some Fraud-Investment-Scheme.
Cybersecurity and Fraud are on the rise in India. It essentially involves spam calls; they give themselves the garb of being government officials while asking for Aadhar, ATM, and other sensitive information. Not to be detected: Currently, these Fraudsters operate from foreign countries too, and even have an Indian Mobile Number to make their Calls seem more authentic. This led to the development of something quite disturbing in nature called ‚cyber slavery‘. Read ahead to know all you should do about it.
What is Cyber-Slavery?
Coming to this century, cyber slavery is the latest kind of exploitation, whereby people are illegally confined and coerced into committing cybersecurity. As its name itself suggests, people are made to believe that they are invited to South East Asian countries for such high-paying data entry services, but later pushed into committing cyber fraud.
Once they get there, their passports are taken and the fraudsters compel the people to create fake profiles of women on social media as a ploy to get people to invest in the cryptocurrency app or fake investment-opportunities. After they take their money, communication is cut off or blocked.
Also read: The Top 5 Free Cybersecurity Training For Beginners
The New Delhi-based report, incidentally, dated April 24, mentioned that over 5,000 Indians were estimated to have been trapped in Cambodia, allegedly shanghaied and made to indulge in cyber fraud. According to the government estimates, at least Rs 500 Crore of the Indians’ money had been laundered by unknown persons in the six months preceding March of this year.
The recent incident prompted the Indian Government to form an inter-ministerial panel that would help in sorting out the issue while also pinpointing the loopholes. The panel has identified deficiencies in the banking, immigration, and telecom sectors. Steps taken by the Indian government against cyber slavery: To tackle cyber slavery, the Union Ministry of Telecommunications has reported to the high-level inter-ministerial committee that there will be disconnection of around 2.17 crore mobile connections obtained through forged documents or misused in cybercrime and block 2.26 lakh mobile handsets.
Besides, DoT has said that all such incoming international calls showing Indian mobile numbers will be blocked by all Telecom companies. The ministry also stated that 35 percent of the same international calls are already being dropped and this provision will fully come into effect by the end of the current calendar year, or, more precisely, by December 31 of the current year.
DoT is also identifying roaming phone numbers in scam operations in the Southeast Asia region. In this respect, all TSPs have been asked to furnish data on a weekly basis for Indian mobile numbers using the roaming facility in Hong Kong, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, and Myanmar.
