In the year 2024, many people have become victims of cyber fraud. According to a report, the entire world including India has become victims of cyber fraud worth Rs 85 lakh crore. This year alone Rs 60 crore has been lost every day in India. The Union Home Ministry has said that after WhatsApp, people have become the maximum victims of fraud on Telegram and Instagram. There are crores of users in these three apps. A large number of people use them daily. Therefore, it becomes easy for online fraudsters to catch their victims here.
In the first three months of 2024, the government had received the maximum number of 43,797 complaints of cyber fraud through WhatsApp. After this, 22,680 fraud complaints have been registered from Telegram. Similarly, 19,800 complaints of fraud were received from Instagram. The report says that cyber thugs use Google service platforms to commit such crimes. With their help they target people.
Who are being targeted?
The Home Ministry report said that this scam is known as ‘Pig Butchering Scam’ or ‘Investment Scam’. This is a global phenomenon. This includes large-scale money laundering and even cyber slavery. Unemployed youth, housewives, students and needy people are targeted. The 2023-24 report of the Home Ministry states that cyber criminals are also launching illegal loan giving apps in the country through sponsored Facebook ads to commit crimes. To take action on them, the government already identifies such links. Instructions are also given to Facebook to remove these links if necessary.
Increasing trend of online payment
In fact, the trend of online banking has increased rapidly across the world. In India too, online payments have increased since the Corona epidemic. In the last three years, a large number of people have completed their financial transactions through UPI payment, card payment, mobile banking. Now online transactions are being done from tea shops to supermarkets. Along with online banking, cases of online fraud are also increasing rapidly. Every year lakhs of people are becoming victims of this type of fraud. In such a situation, protection from online fraud becomes very important.
Ways to avoid cyber fraud
The first step to avoid cyber fraud is to be alert. If you receive emails, messages or calls from an unknown person. During this period, be careful if you ask for personal and banking related information. Don’t trust any such person. Always create strong passwords. If possible, use two-factor authentication (2FA) based on username and password. Change your online account password regularly and it should not contain your name or mobile number.
Parcel Scam: A new method of scam has come in the market, parcel orderers should be alert, they will be defrauded within minutes.