“I fell victim to a fraud communication six months back while trying to rent a house on an online platform. A person posing as an Indian Army officer, with a fake ID card and documents, cheated me of Rs 61,000 under the pretext of renting. He asked for my phone number and sent me a QR code. Then, he sent me Re 1 in my account to gain my confidence. After that, my hard-earned money was deducted from my account. Now all I can do is wait for the police to solve the case to bring my money back,” said Kunal Kishore, a 26-year-old victim of fraud communication from Ranchi.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, has reported that there have been 93,081 cases of telecommunication scams reported nationwide as on date, indicating an alarming increase in fraud communication cases in India.
Fraud communications include information about a bank account, payment wallet, SIM card, gas or electricity connection, KYC update, expiration, or deactivation, impersonation as a government official or relative, sextortion, and many more.
The Department of Telecommunication reports that as of now, it has received 93,081 requests via call, SMS, and WhatsApp. Of these, 60,730 requests were received via calls, 29,325 through WhatsApp, and 3,026 through SMS, respectively. The most requests came from the state of Uttar Pradesh (10,392 cases).
So far, 89,970 reported cases via 80,209 calls, 5,988 WhatsApp, and 997 SMS have been successfully resolved. A total of 2,776 mobile handsets, 997 headers, and 5,988 WhatsApp accounts have been blocked to date. The state (Licensed Service Areas — LSAs) with the highest number of cases resolved or action taken is Andhra Pradesh (13,380 cases).
Renowned cybersecurity firm McAfee carried out its first ‘Global Scam Message Study’ in 2023. The study found that Indians spend about 1.8 hours a week identifying fraudulent messages and that they receive an average of 12 scams or fake messages every day. A total of 82 per cent Indians have been duped by fake messages. McAfee reported about 64 per cent fake job notifications/offers and 52 per cent bank alert messages are the most prevalent types of scams.
According to the McAfee report, 83 per cent voice scam victims and about half of Indian respondents claimed they couldn’t tell the difference between a real voice and a clone. A total of 49 per cent respondents believed scam messages are very flawless, extremely convincing, and even contain personal information, making them more difficult to detect.
On August 28 this year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a consultation paper outlining some changes to its anti-spam laws. This comes as the regulator is having difficulty keeping up with the ongoing surge in fraudulent and spam calls and SMS messages that are occurring in India.
What to do if you suspect you have been defrauded or lost money in financial fraud?
• Report at cybercrime helpline number 1930.
• Visit the website https://www.cybercrime.gov.in.
• Report any suspected fraud communication received within the last 30 days by visiting the portal ‘CHAKSHU’ at https://sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc/Home/sfc-complaint.jsp
• Visit the ‘Sanchar Saathi’ portal, a citizen-centric initiative of the Department of Telecommunications, to report and trace the complaint.
• Report a complaint to the nearest police station.
Precautions
• Never click on any unidentified or dubious links.
• Block unsafe/risky hyperlinks in text messages, social media posts, and web browser tabs.
• Use renowned and trustworthy scam protection software and apps.
• Don’t follow the instructions of any unknown person in phone/online immediately.
• Always think and double-check before taking any action and sharing or putting OTP, pin, password, any documents, or important personal details.
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