India Saw A Rise In Cyber Crime Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic

This week, the Indian police filed a case against an unknown online scammer who made an attempt to sell the largest statue in the world for $ billion, saying that the money would be forwarded to the government fund of the Gujarat state in the fight against COVID-19.

According to the police, the scammer’s scheme to sell the “Statue of Unity,” which is a monument that twice as high as the Statue of Liberty in New York is one of the most daring cases. Since the whole country being hit by the pandemic, there is a rise in the number of cybercrime-related cases.

The scams range from free Netflix subscriptions to free mobile recharges, officials of the federal home ministry said that the country has witnessed a 86% increase in cybercrime in the last four weeks.

As per internal security officials and police, fraudsters have created fake versions of the “PM CARES Fund” that look similar to the original one, making many Non-Residents Indians, as well as Indians, fall into the trap.

A senior home ministry official stated that over 8,000 complaints had been submitted by Non-Residents Indians and Indians who had been scammed to donate thousands of dollars.

Police have also filed cases against scammers offering discounted services from Reliance Jio and Netflix. Many people have fallen prey after they were forced to stay inside their houses for 21 days.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the Reserve Bank of India’s technology arm ReBIT recently warned about online scams and threats, asking financial institutions to put on their guards.

The U.S. Secret Service has already issued warnings about how cybercriminals are trying to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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