HT Correspondent
DIMAPUR, April 7: The Nagaland government has issued an alert to the public about the rising financial cybercrime and frauds in the country and the state.
In an advisory, the state government asked the people to be cautious of the widespread operation of such cyber financial fraudsters. It said these fraudsters are well organised and go through extra efforts to appear genuine and real to victims.
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It pointed out that various sophisticated and complex methods and modus operandi are used by fraudsters and criminals to loot victims of their money.
The government cited some of the recent frauds unearthed in the country. It said in one such scam, cyber crooks were arrested from different parts of the country for duping thousands of people by creating a fake State Bank of India app similar to the SBI Yono and duping people by making them download the app through Phishing (fraud emails/messages claiming to be genuine to steal personal information like password, bank details, etc., or to install malwares) and then impersonating fake bank employees asking KYC update details.
In another major scam called the ‘Chinese app seams’, lakhs of Indians have been looted of crores of rupees where victims were enticed with small returns or profit on investments made by them and then trust was gained of the victims. When the victims started investing more money, the fraudsters disappeared with the money.
Attractive fake advertisements/publicity are generated like ‘earn money sitting at home,’ ‘doubling income schemes,’ ‘crypto investment,’ ‘gaming applications investment’, etc. One common feature of all these scams is that Chinese apps are used and Chinese nationals are involved, the advisory said.
Another example is the ‘power bank app’ case where lakhs of victims across India were looted of Rs 300 crore. A power bank app listed in Google Play store projected itself as an Indian-based company involved in quick charging technology and the company lured victims to invest their money on the pretext of doubling their money in a short time.
Similar apps under different names like EZ money, EZ coin, etc., have been used. The main handlers in many of the cases are based in China and the rackets are operated in a multi-layered fashion where the money goes through many agents, partners, etc.
The money is transacted through multiple bank accounts, crypto accounts and popular e-wallets like PhonePe, Paytm. In most cases, rapport and trust are established with the victims after which they are defrauded, the government said.
