Significant Rise In Investment Scams In India; Over Rs 1 Billion Lost In First Four Months Of 2024: Report

With technological innovations, cyber crimes have also increased across the world. In India too, the threat has become a major concern. Despite new discoveries, the crime rate has not plummeted, with new loopholes the fraudsters are finding. Notably, a recent study has pointed out a frightening rise in the number of scams using social media messaging platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram in India.

The report by CloudSEK, a threat intelligence firm, identified that over 81,000 fake investment groups on WhatsApp and over 29,000 malicious investment ads on Facebook since the beginning of 2024.

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The report also highlighted the tactic of impersonation used by the scammers to deceive the victims. The report claimed that around 81,000 X accounts is posing as recognised financial institutions to give authenticity to these fraudsters. The criminals systematically buy data from brokers to facilitate the scams.

As per the report, fraudsters reach out to the victims using social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp by using compromised data to send direct messages. After convincing the victims that they are legitimate investment companies, the victims are manipulated. For this, the scammers show fake proof of earnings, ask victims to invest by promising higher returns deceive them with fake profits, and then make them invest more. After extracting money as much as possible, the victim is removed from the WhatsApp group.

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In addition to India, similar scams have also been reported in Malaysia, the US, Thailand, and Vietnam as primary targets. In the first four months of 2024, a total of 4,599 cases of scams were reported in India. A total of s 1.2 billion was lost in these digital fraud incidents. The country has witnessed more than 100,000 investment scam cases in 2023.

An earlier report released in March by CloudSEK, said that with compressed data totalling 600 GB and uncompressed data at 1.8 TB, 85% of India’s population was exposed to malicious activities, including social engineering attacks, identity theft and scam campaigns.