Checking the online predators

No amount of vigilance seems to be deterring the fraudsters on online prowl across the country. Despite the police authorities issuing warnings and widely publicising the helpline numbers, more and more people are falling victim to machinations of fraudsters impersonating themselves as officials from Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax or Central Bureau of Investigation. With social media gaining penetration on a large scale, people are being lured into scams under the pretence of loans, trading, romance or investment.

General Lack of awareness and ignorance of law facilitates online predators to trap gullible surfers into their net. ‘Digital arrest’ is the latest among their weapons which they use under the threat of prosecution, litigation or penalties. Few have the guts and gumption to withstand their ‘intimidation’ or ingenuity to check and challenge their fakery or trickery. According to Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the online scammers extorted Rs. 2,140 crore in first ten months of the year (between January and October).

Given the increasing incidence of cybercrime, Prime Minister Narendra Modi even cautioned people against the criminals urging them to be alert against such scamsters in his October episode of ‘Mann ki Baat’. Latest reports suggest fraudsters operating from hubs located at the tri-junction of Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. Nearly half the calls are said to be traceable to call centres that have been set up there. The operators even enslave the unemployed youth from India to tackle the cultural nuances of the trade. While many of them are coerced or manipulated into slavery after being trapped by human traffickers, several others are willing partners of the trade.

While the Centre has started blocking the SIM cards beginning with +91 code found to be involved in fraudulent activities, it is imperative that the Union government takes up the case with the governments in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos to uncover the network and pursue the criminals. Social media companies too appear prominently in the picture. They need to be cautioned against transnational criminals using the network.