Govt blocks 100 websites involved in job scams, illegal investments

The Ministry of Home Affairs has blocked 100 websites that were involved in organised crimes such as job scams and illegal investments. These proceeds were laundered out of India using card networks, cryptocurrency, among other routes.

The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), an initiative of the Ministry of Home Affairs, through its vertical National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit (NCTAU), had last week identified and recommended over 100 websites involved in organised investment / task-based part-time job frauds.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) blocked these websites in accordance with the Information Technology Act 2000.

“These websites, which facilitated task-based / organised 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, cryptocurrency, overseas ATM withdrawals, and international Fintech companies,” said the statement.

The modus operandi of these websites was also explained. The fraud starts by launching targeted advertisements on platforms like Google and Meta using keywords like “Ghar baithe job” or “Ghar baithe kamai kaise karen” in multiple languages.

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 them to perform some tasks like Video Likes and Subscribe, Maps Rating, etc.

Upon completion of the 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 a larger sum, deposits are frozen and thus the victim is duped.

The Ministry of Home Affairs also asked users to be alert and take precaution, especially before investing in any such very high commission-paying online schemes sponsored over the internet.

Users should also be cautious if an unknown person contacts them over WhatsApp / Telegram, and must refrain from performing financial transactions without verification. 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, said the statement.