India has further ramped up its war against pig butchering scams with a partnership with Google and Facebook. Such scams, which frequently employ cryptocurrencies as their tools, have recently experienced a large level of suspicious activity because they are used to steal money from people and launder it.
The Indian Union Home Ministry’s report for the year 2024 suggests that pig butchering scams, or investment scams, affect “unemployed youths, housewives, students, and needy people.” Some fraudsters target weak individuals by taking advantage of their financial vulnerability and squeezing their confidence, and lure them into fantastic and juicy profits.
The report highlights a troubling trend: victims are ‘losing large sums of money, including borrowed monies’ on a daily basis. These scams are advertised through Google’s advertisement services and shared through messaging layers such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
I4C Partners with Google, Facebook to Combat Scams
Regarding this growing problem, I4C, under the Ministry of Home Affairs of India, has recently joined the partnership with Google and Facebook. The collaboration aims to:
Flag Malicious Activities: The speakers have to independently detect and filter out bad advertisements beforehand.
Detect Fraudulent Apps: In its stead, the anonymous letter urged the BGC to target digital lending apps that prey on users specifically. Identify Phishing Campaigns: Get information on the online scams related to these cons.
This also includes the implementation of cryptocurrency exchanges into the Indian Citizen Financial Cyber Frauds Reporting and Management System, a centralized platform used by police, banks, payment gateways, and cryptocurrency exchanges to identify and control fraudulent transactions in cryptocurrencies.
India is preparing its law enforcement authorities for greater training, specifically to improve the tracking and investigation of cryptocurrency misuse. Training sessions focus on investigating different contracts related to cryptocurrency.
Investigating blockchain from a criminal prosecution perspective in order to investigate and break down fraud gangs.These efforts are necessary because India remains an attractive area for crypto fraud groups, often based in areas including Southeast Asia.
Lawmakers are also increasing protectionism by enhancing the regulation of the crypto market. In 2023, after the emergence of such a facility, the Indian Financial Intelligence Unit required all the owners of crypto exchanges to become reporting entities to be legally functional within the country.
Apart from the regulatory steps, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is India’s economic intelligence agency, has initiated strict actions against major crypto-related frauds.
In June 2024, the ED simultaneously restrained NYA by over $3m. That belongs to the Highrich group crypto fraudster notorious as the Ponzi scheme that guarantees 15% investment returns. In a different month, yet another cryptocurrency scam racket was busted, the amount defrauded being over $800,000.
Measures adopted in India, collaboration with technological giants, and rapprochement with regulation + show that the country is actively fighting against scams related to cryptocurrencies. We have seen the growth of cryptocurrency adoption, hence encouraging a more secure and transparent environment.
In its endeavour, India hopes to safeguard its innocent citizens and provide regulations to resist being trapped in such fake schemes. It also wants to help its citizens take the necessary measures to prevent such occurrences and embrace the lawful usage of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.
