The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, or I4C, has proactively identified and blacklisted over 1,700 Skype IDs and 59,000 WhatsApp accounts used for digital arrests, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The government has also initiated a broad awareness campaign against digital arrests, according to the report.
“The central government has launched a comprehensive awareness programme on digital arrest which, inter-alia, include; newspaper advertisement on digital arrest scam, announcement in Delhi metros on digital arrest and other modus operandi of cyber criminals, use of social media influencers to create special posts on digital arrest, campaign about digital arrest through Prasar Bharti and electronic media, special programme on Aakashvani on digital arrest…”, the MHA said in a written response in the Lok Sabha.
“I4C (has) proactively identified and blocked more than 1,700 Skype IDs and 59,000 WhatsApp accounts used for digital arrest,” it said.
The issue of digital arrests also came up during deliberations at the director generals of police/inspector generals of police (DGPs/IGPs) conference last week in Bhubaneswar, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the police leadership of the country to focus on digital frauds, and use of artificial intelligence by the criminals, particularly the use of deep-fakes.
The home ministry also said that the government has published a press release to alert people against incidents of ‘blackmail’ and ‘digital arrest’ by cyber criminals impersonating as officers of state police, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and other law enforcement agencies.
It further said that the government and telecom service providers (TSPs) “have devised a system to identify and block incoming international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers appear to be originating within India.”
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Source: HT
