Page 4 - Scams

MUDA scam: BJP to hold mega protest in Mysuru on July 12, asks CM to resign

Karnataka BJP will be holding a "mega" protest in Mysuru on July 12 in connection with an alleged fraudulent allotment of sites to land losers by Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA), which involves plots given to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's wife Parvathi, its president B Y Vijayendra said on Wednesday, and demanded the CM's resignation. The protesters will demand allocation of sites to the poor by withdrawing those distributed illegally, and a CBI probe into the "scam" as the allegations are against the Chief Minister and his family, he said, adding that the BJP will also raise the issue during the coming Assembly session. It is alleged that compensatory sites were allotted to Siddaramaiah's wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which had been "acquired" by the MUDA. The MUDA had allotted plots to Parvathi under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of her land, where MUDA developed a residential ...

ED arrests two in money laundering case linked to Chhattisgarh liquor scam

The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday said it has arrested two liquor businessmen in connection with its money laundering probe into an alleged excise scam of Chhattisgarh that is estimated to have generated over Rs 2,100 crore of slush funds. Arvind Singh and Trilok Singh Dhillon were arrested on July 1 at the central jail in Raipur and later a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court sent them to ED custody till July 6, the federal probe agency said in a statement. The two were lodged in jail after the Chhattisgarh Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested them in the case sometime back. The money laundering case of the ED stemmed from an EOW/ACB FIR filed in January and had named 70 individuals and companies, including former excise minister Kawasi Lakhma, former chief secretary Vivek Dhand and others. The alleged scam, where the ED has pegged the proceeds of crime at Rs 2,161 crore, purportedly took place between 2019-2022 when the Congress was in power in

Online dating scam on the rise; How to prevent yourself from being a victim

Scammers start chatting on dating apps, with fabricated tales of companionship desires to manipulate emotions. Then they plan club meetings where they deceive victims by ordering expensive items

137 Indians arrested in Sri Lanka for cyber scam; 158 mobile phones seized

At least 60 Indian nationals part of a group engaged in online financial scams have been arrested by Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigations Department. They were arrested on Thursday from the Colombo suburbs of Madiwela and Battaramulla and from the western coastal town of Negombo. According to Police Spokesman SSP Nihal Thalduwa, the CID conducted simultaneous raids in these mentioned areas, leading to the seizure of 135 mobile phones and 57 laptops. The crackdown follows a complaint from a victim who was lured into a WhatsApp group promising cash for social media interactions. Further investigation revealed a scheme where victims were coerced into making deposits after initial payments. In Peradeniya, a father-son duo admitted to aiding the fraudsters, Daily Mirror Lanka newspaper reported. Key evidence uncovered during a luxury house raid in Negombo led to the initial arrest of 13 suspects and the seizure of 57 phones and computers. Subsequent operations in Negombo yielded 19 ...

Faking honest woman: Why Russia, China all use faux females to get clicks

When disinformation researcher Wen-Ping Liu looked into China's efforts to influence Taiwan's recent election using fake social media accounts, something unusual stood out about the most successful profiles. They were female, or at least that's what they appeared to be. Fake profiles that claimed to be women got more engagement, more eyeballs and more influence than supposedly male accounts. Pretending to be a female is the easiest way to get credibility, said Liu, an investigator with Taiwan's Ministry of Justice. Whether it's Chinese or Russian propaganda agencies, online scammers or AI chatbots, it pays to be female - proving that while technology may grow more and more sophisticated, the human brain remains surprisingly easy to hack thanks in part to age-old gender stereotypes that have migrated from the real world to the virtual. People have long assigned human characteristics like gender to inanimate objects - ships are one example - so it makes sense that human-like traits .

Phishing scams using QR codes are surging, here's what you should know

The QR code scams are rising significantly in the country. In the last 14 days, over 2000 such emails have been sent to over 1100 customers. Check how these phishing scams work

Govt cracks down on SMS scammers, blacklists principal entities involved

In a major crackdown on SMS scammers, the government has blacklisted 'principal entities' behind SMS headers that were used for sending over 10,000 fraudulent messages over the past three months, according to an official release. The Department of Telecom (DoT), in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has taken decisive action to protect citizens from potential SMS fraud through the Sanchar Saathi initiative, it said. Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under MHA provided information about the misuse of eight SMS headers for sending fraudulent communications for committing cybercrime. It was noted that more than 10,000 fraudulent messages were sent using these eight headers in the past three months. The principal entities which were the owners of these eight SMS headers have been blacklisted. 'Principal entities' in telecom parlance refer to business or legal entities sending out commercial messages to telecom subscribers through SMS. A header means an ..

Bengal BJP launches portal for candidates affected by school jobs scam

The West Bengal unit of the BJP has set up a dedicated legal support website and a helpline number to assist "genuine" candidates affected by the alleged school jobs scam, a senior party leader said on Thursday. The helpline number and the portal were made public on Wednesday night, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the state unit of the BJP to establish a legal cell for the "genuine" candidates. "As per the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, West Bengal BJP is duty-bound to stand beside the eligible candidates who were affected due to the TMC's illegal recruitment of some people," BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said. The legal support website is 'bjplegalsupport.org' and helpline number is 9150056618, he said. "Once a complaint is received through the helpline number or the website, we will speak to the candidate concerned and seek the status of his or her case, following which we will provide legal help accordingly," he said. While addressing election

Rs 10,000 cr transactions, bogus firms: How police busted multi-cr GST scam

The Dhingra family duped the government of around Rs 68 crore by fraudulently claiming input tax credit on behalf of nine bogus firms

OTP fraud: How govt, SBI Card, telcos are joining hands to fight the menace

OTP fraud exploits the security feature designed to protect online transactions - One Time Passwords (OTPs). Find out how fraudsters operate and what the government is doing to stop them

Rescued 250 Indians; 75 in last 3 months: MEA on fake job scam in Cambodia

"Collaborating closely with Cambodian authorities, it has rescued and repatriated about 250 Indians, of which 75 in just the last three months," Jaiswal said

150,000 pilgrims visiting Ram Mandir daily; Trust cautions against scams

Warning about possible scam attempts, the Trust explained that there is no special arrangement for darshan through any special pass or certain fee

60% of scam cases in UK came from Facebook, Instagram, says Revolut

The London-based fintech found 60% of UK scam cases came from Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, dwarfing other platforms and frauds conducted by telephone

CBI registers case against Universal Trading involved in multi-crore scam

There were many cases of fraud and cheating registered against Gowtham Ramesh in Tamil Nadu and Kerala

Trafigura checked traders didn't collude in Gupta fraud case: Report

Trafigura filed a lawsuit against Gupta in February, alleging seven companies that it said were controlled by him carried out a systematic fraud involving nickel cargoes

Coal sector saw scams in past, transparent system now in place: Joshi

There were massive scams in the country's coal sector in the past but now such a robust and transparent system has been established that even the coal minister cannot allocate one kg of coal to anyone in a discretionary manner, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said Wednesday. Replying to a question related to his ministry in the Lok Sabha, the Union coal minister said the country is in the process of producing one billion tonnes of coal, fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat'. "Now we have a very robust and transparent system. I can't even give a single kilogram of coal in a discretionary manner. I can't give a coal block in a discretionary manner. We all know how coal blocks were allocated in the past. There were massive scams," Joshi said. H said commercial coal mining has started in the country and it will bring efficiency and competition in coal production, attract investment and help create more jobs in the sector.

CBI to probe multi-crore scam by three cooperative banks in Karnataka: CM

The Central Bureau of Investigation will probe into the financial irregularities that took place in three cooperative banks in Karnataka, the state government said on Saturday. In a post on 'X', Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said: "It has been approved to hand over the scams of Guru Raghavendra Cooperative Bank, Vasishtha Bank and Guru Sovereign Bank to the CBI." Thousands of depositors had invested their lifetime savings in the bank, keeping their dreams like marriage of children, buying their own house as a basis for their retirement life. All of them are clueless about their future life due to bankers' fraud, the chief minister said. "Even when I was the Leader of the Opposition earlier, I was vocal inside and outside the House and participated in protests to get justice for the defrauded depositors. Even then, it was our insistence that this case should be investigated by CBI," he stated. "I have seen the frustration and suffering from those who have lost their deposit money. For

Bengal recruitment 'scam': ED summons TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee on Nov 9

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee to appear before it here on November 9 in connection with the alleged school jobs scam, a TMC leader said on Wednesday. Banerjee will appear before the ED on Thursday, West Bengal Women and Child Welfare Minister and TMC spokesperson Shashi Panja said, alleging that the party national general secretary is a victim of "vendetta politics". She also alleged that the BJP does such vendetta politics to "harass" leaders ahead of crucial election early next year. State BJP spokesperson Shamik Lahiri said the party does not believe in vendetta politics. He stated that summoning by central agencies is happening under the supervision of the court, and if the TMC has any problem, it can approach the court. The ED had earlier summoned Banerjee to appear before it on October 9, after he skipped the October 3 summons to participate in a TMC protest rally in New Delhi, demanding immediate release of central fund

Money scams: Deepfakes, AI will drive $10 trn in financial fraud, crime

The proliferation of scam tech has alarmed regulators, police and people at the highest levels of the financial industry. Artificial intelligence in particular is being used to "turbocharge" fraud

Finance ministry cautions people against 'matrimonial dating scam'

The Ministry of Finance said that customs will never call or send a text message asking people to pay customs duty through a personal bank account