Page 4 - Cybercrime

Cybercrime victims must dial helpline number in case of fraud: Haryana DGP

He cautioned against falling for schemes enticing investments in trading or stock markets through WhatsApp groups and fake websites

Combating online frauds: All you need to know about 'Chakshu' and 'DIP'

Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw introduced two new initiatives, Digital Intelligence Platform and Chakshu, as measures to tackle cybercrimes

Delhi Police warns residents amid spike in 'digital house arrest' cases

Cyber crooks are now adopting a new modus operandi called 'digital house arrest', causing serious concern for Delhi Police with over 200 such cases recorded every month in the national capital, officials said. According to a police officer, 'digital house arrest' refers to a fraud where impostors impersonating law enforcement officers deceive the victims into believing that their bank account, SIM card, Aadhaar card, or other cards linked to their bank account has been used unlawfully. The fraudsters then virtually restrain the victims from moving out of the house and coerce them into paying them money, the officer said. "Digital house arrest has become a major concern nowadays. However, our special unit only investigates those cases where the cheated amount is above Rs 50 lakh," a senior police officer of the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police said. The officer said such 'cyber thugs' are technically sound and know how to convince their target

Confidential data breach in Motilal Oswal by ransomware gang LockBit

Last year, the LockBit group also attacked Indian pharmaceutical company Granules India and India's state-owned National Aerospace Laboratories, as per TechCrunch.

Over 8,600 bank accounts linked to cybercriminals frozen in Jharkhand

The maximum of 2,002 accounts were frozen in Deoghar district, followed by 1,183 in Dhanbad and 959 in Ranchi, he said

Over 8,600 bank accounts linked to cybercriminals frozen in Jharkhand

Altogether 8,674 bank accounts, allegedly linked to cybercriminals, have been frozen in Jharkhand on suspicion that these were being used for phishing activities, a CID official said on Tuesday. The maximum of 2002 accounts were frozen in Deoghar district, followed by 1,183 in Dhanbad and 959 in Ranchi, he said. We received the details of frozen accounts from the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre and prepared a district and bank-wise list of such information. "The data will be shared with the superintendent of police of all districts and banks for verification of the accounts, Jharkhand Crime Investigation Department (CID) Director General Anurag Gupta told PTI. He said that the details of such account holders would be traced. If these accounts are found fake or linked to cybercriminals, action will be taken against the account holders," he said. The CID has been carrying out a massive operation against cybercriminals in Jharkhand. As many as 495 people have been arrested fo

Cyber crimes push overall crime rate in Telangana by 9% in 2023: DGP

The overall crime rate in Telangana has increased by nearly nine per cent in 2023 compared to the previous year, mainly because of a 17.6 per cent jump in cyber crime, Director General of Police Ravi Gupta said on Friday. Addressing an annual press conference here, the official said 2023 has been an incident-free year compared to the previous one, though it was quite hectic for the police due to the legislative assembly polls held recently. A total of 2.13 lakh cases were registered by the police during the current year -- up by 8.97 per cent compared to last year, while 16,339 cyber crime cases were booked in 2023 as against 13,895 last year, which is an increase of 17.59 per cent, a press release said. During this year, the value of total property lost was Rs 151.78 crore, of which goods worth Rs 80.81 crore (53.82 per cent) were recovered, as compared to 50 per cent last year, the release said. A total of 1,362 cases of kidnapping/abduction were registered during the current yea

Telangana logs 15,297 cybercrime cases in 2022, highest in India: NCRB

Telangana registered 15,297 cybercrime cases in 2022, the highest in the country, according to the latest NCRB data. Cybercrime in the state has been on an upward trajectory, with 5,024 cases in 2020 and 10,303 in 2021, according to an analysis of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. The data showed that among the 28 states, Telangana logged the highest number of cybercrime cases, followed by Karnataka with 12,556 and Uttar Pradesh with 10,117 in 2022. The 28 states recorded a cumulative 64,907 cybercrime cases last year. The rate of total cybercrime cases per lakh population in Telangana stood at 40.3 while the percentage of cases for which a charge sheet was filed was 17.1, according to the data. There were 624 cases of ATM frauds, 3,223 online banking frauds, 2,179 OTP frauds, 4,467 cheating frauds, 280 cyber stalking and 234 cyber blackmailing/threatening. The motive in 10,991 cases was fraud followed by extortion with 447, the data revealed.

Sharp rise in cyber crime cases in states, metros; IPC registration dips

The NCRB report shows that in States and Union Territoriess cyber crimes have seen a 24.4 percent increase

Bankman-Fried stole customer funds from start of FTX: Co-founder to jury

Sam Bankman-Fried authorised the illegal use of FTX customers' funds and assets to plug financial gaps at an affiliated hedge fund from the exchange's earliest days, FTX's co-founder Gary Wang told a New York jury on Friday, as prosecutors pressed their case that Bankman-Fried was the mastermind behind one of the biggest frauds in US history. Eventually, the losses at the hedge fund, Alameda Research, became so large that there was no way to hide them any longer, Wang said in his second day of testimony. FTX was not fine, Wang said, referring to the now-infamous tweet that Bankman-Fried wrote only a few days before the exchange filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried, 31, stole billions of dollars from investors and customers in order to fund a lavish lifestyle in The Bahamas and buy the influence of politicians, celebrities and the public. Wang was FTX's chief technology officer and is part of what has been referred to as the inner circle of FT

Bengaluru Police bust Rs 854 cr cyber investment fraud, arrest six people

The Bengaluru Police have busted a Rs 854 crore cyber fraud scam and arrested six people who allegedly cheated thousands of victims across India on the pretext of an investment scheme, officials said on Saturday. Out of the total cheated amount, Rs five crore had been frozen, they said. The accused gang lured the victims through Whatsapp and Telegram. Initially, they were asked to invest smaller amounts ranging from Rs 1,000 to 10,000 on the pretext that they would earn Rs 1,000 to 5,000 per day as a profit, a senior police officer said. Thousands of victims invested money ranging from Rs one lakh to 10 lakh or more, he said. The money invested by the victims was dumped into different bank accounts through online payments. However, after completing the investment process, when the victim tried to withdraw the amount, they never got any refund, he added. Once the amount was collected, the accused diverted the consolidated money to mule accounts (related to money laundering), the ..

80% cybercrimes from 10 districts, Bharatpur new Jamtara: Research

Rajasthan's Bharatpur and Uttar Pradesh's Mathura have replaced Jharkhand's Jamtara and Haryana's Nuh as the infamous hotspots of cybercrime in India, according to a new study by an IIT Kanpur-incubated start-up. The study also revealed that just the top 10 districts collectively contribute to 80 per cent of cybercrimes in the country. The findings have been mentioned by the Future Crime Research Foundation (FCRF), a non-profit start-up incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur, in its latest comprehensive white paper named 'A Deep Dive into Cybercrime Trends Impacting India'. Bharatpur (18 per cent), Mathura (12 per cent), Nuh (11 per cent), Deoghar (10 per cent), Jamtara (9.6 per cent), Gurugram (8.1 per cent), Alwar (5.1 per cent), Bokaro (2.4 per cent), Karma Tand (2.4 per cent) and Giridih (2.3 per cent) are the top contributors to cybercrime cases in India, collectively accounting for 80 per cent of reported incidence, the FCRF claimed. "Our analysis focuse

Top 10 epicenters make 80% of total cybercrime in India, says report

The study, released by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur-incubated Future Crime Research Foundation, revealed alarming trends - especially pertaining to financial frauds

Financial frauds accounted for over 75% cyber crimes since 2020: Study

Financial frauds accounted for over 75 per cent of cyber crimes in the country from January 2020 till June 2023, with nearly 50 per cent cases related to UPI and internet banking, according to a new study by an IIT Kanpur-incubated start-up. Social media-related crimes such as cheating by impersonation, cyber-bullying, sexting and email phishing accounted for 12 per cent of the online offences during the period, the study showed. The findings have been mentioned by the Future Crime Research Foundation (FCRF), a non-profit start-up incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur, in its latest comprehensive whitepaper 'A Deep Dive into Cybercrime Trends Impacting India'. For online financial frauds, which accounted for the maximum 77.41 per cent offences during the period, the FCRF noted that "this category is a dominant concern, covering fraudulent activities related to online financial transactions". "Subcategories include debit/credit card fraud, business email ...

Indian American arrested in US in $13 mn tech fraud, faces 20 yrs in prison

An Indian American has been arrested in New Jersey on charge of being part of a technical support scam that targeted more than 7,000 victims defrauding them of more than USD 13 million, a US Attorney announced Thursday. Charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Manoj Yadav appeared before US Magistrate Judge Jos R. Almonte in Newark federal court. "The defendant and his conspirators are alleged to have misled their numerous victims into thinking that they were a legitimate technology support company affiliated with a major software company," US Attorney Philip R Sellinger said. After claiming to provide technical support for issues involving the software company's popular accounting software, they allegedly charged the victims exorbitant fees for purported support services that were not authorized by the software company, he alleged. "We allege Yadav lied to software users and forced them to pay for services that would usually come free with their initial purchase,

Over 13,000 cybercrime cases registered in UP from 2022 to March 20, 2023

More than 13,000 cybercrime cases were registered in Uttar Pradesh from 2022 to March 20, 2023, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who also holds the home portfolio, informed the state assembly on Tuesday. SP MLA from Sardhana Atul Pradhan had sought the information in a starred question and asked about the measures taken by the government to check the "increasing" cybercrime in the state. "From the year 2022 till 20.03.2023, 13,155 cases of cybercrime were registered. Out of the total number of 27,390 complaint applications, 21,623 cases have been disposed of and the remaining applications are being disposed of," Adityanath said in a written reply. To effectively control cybercrime in the state, 18 cybercrime police stations have been set up. The process of setting up cybercrime police stations in 57 districts is underway, he said. "In every district, cyber helpdesks have been set up at 1,531 police stations of the state to help the victims of cybercrime. District cyber cell has been

NCSC floats G20 Delhi declaration on preventing cybercrime incidents

National Cyber Security Coordinator Rajesh Pant on Monday proposed "Delhi Declarations" for G20 nations to promote cyber peace and cooperation to prevent, mitigate and investigate cyber incidents in cyberspace. While speaking at the B20 Conference on Cyber Security organised by CII, Pant cited various G20 action plans around cyberspace and said that the G20 supports the existing UN cybersecurity norms. "I want to propose today something that I'm calling the Delhi Declaration," Pant said. He said that the G20 encourages states to adopt norms of responsible state behaviour in cyberspace and Delhi Declarations comprises four to five norms that have already been accepted by the UN and the open ended working groups. "We commit to protect, not damage critical infrastructure or other essential and peaceful systems from cyber-related or enabled means, commit to cooperate to prevent, mitigate and investigate cyber incidents, and other malicious activities in cyberspace. In particular, when

New CBI Director expert in tackling cybercrime faced Shivakumar's ire

Currently, serving as the Director General of Police (DGP) in Karnataka, Sood brings a wealth of experience and expertise to his new role

ASEAN leaders to agree to cooperate in fighting cybercrime, scams

Southeast Asian leaders have agreed to tighten border controls and law enforcement and improve public education to fight criminal syndicates that are trafficking workers to other nations, where they are forced to participate in online fraud, according to a draft statement to be issued Thursday at the end of a regional summit. The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, who are meeting in the Indonesian town of Labuan Bajo, will express concern about the increasing abuse of technology in facilitating trafficking in persons in Southeast Asia and globally, proliferated through the use and abuse of social media and other online platforms, according to a draft of their statement obtained by The Associated Press. The use of social media and other platforms by cybercrime syndicates has complicated anti-trafficking in persons efforts, as well as multiplied the number and scale of the cases, it says. Cybercrime scams have become a major issue in the region, with numerous repor

Report, block calls from international numbers to stay safe: Home Ministry

The alert is being circulated by Home Ministry's Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) so that innocent people do not become victims of cybercrime