Cyber fraud called 'pig butchering scam' targeting unemployed youths, housewives, students: MHA report

New Delhi: A new cyber fraud known as "pig butchering scam" or "investment scam" has emerged, targeting unemployed youths, housewives, students, and needy people who are made to lose large sums of money daily, according to the latest annual report of the Union home ministry.

Cyber criminals use Google, Facebook

The report said that cybercriminals have also been using Google services platforms to initiate these crimes. "Google Advertisement platform provides a convenient facility for targeted advertisement from across the border. This scam, known as 'Pig Butchering Scam' or 'Investment Scam' is a global phenomenon and involves large-scale money laundering and even cyber slavery," it said.

The cybercriminals are using sponsored Facebook to launch illegal lending applications in India, MHA report says. "Such links are proactively identified and shared with Facebook, along with Facebook pages for necessary action," it said.

WhatsApp is misused

WhatsApp remains the biggest social media platform that is possibly misused by cyber criminals in India, the report said. Links on whats app are sent to students, housewives, unemployed youths and they are made to believe that they are going to earn money from the schemes. Initially, they are paid to gain confidence. Once they bring more people to the platform, all of them are duped. Small investments are the target in this investment scheme.

Cybercrime complaints of Big Tech platforms

To curb the menace, the home ministry's Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has partnered with Google to share the threat intelligence for urgent action periodically.

The data published in the report on "cybercrime complaints where Big Tech platforms have been misused" till March 2024 shows:

* 14746 complaints were related to WhatsApp,

* 7651 against Telegram,

* 7152 against Instagram,

* 7051 against Facebook,

* 1135 against YouTube

"Big techs play an important role in proactive identification and action on cyber criminals. I4C has partnered with Google and Facebook for sharing intelligence and signals for proactive actions," the report said.

What is Pig butchering scam?

The pig butchering scam, which is believed to have started in China in 2016, targets gullible individuals with whom cyber criminals build trust over time, ultimately convincing them to invest in cryptocurrency or some other lucrative scheme when their money is stolen. The analogy to pig butchering comes from the fattening of swine before their slaughter.

Analysis of cyber fraud complaints

National Cybercrime Threat Analytical Unit (NCTAU) of I4C analyses the complaints reported on the portal and prepares analysis reports on the latest trends of cybercrime and misuse of services provided by service providers, it said. "These reports are shared with all the concerned stakeholders, i.e., banks, wallets, merchants, payments aggregators, payment gateways, e-commerce and other departments to take preventive measures and mitigate the misuse of their platforms/services," the report said.

Citizens can report frauds

The ministry has also rolled out a Cyber Volunteer Framework, which enables citizens to enrol as cyber volunteers for reporting unlawful content on the Internet, dissemination of cyber hygiene and as cyber experts to aid law enforcement under which 54,833 volunteers had registered by March 31, 2024, according to the report.

The ministry's integrated platform Citizen Financial Cyber Frauds Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS), where all stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies of states/Union territories, all major banks and financial intermediaries, payment wallets, crypto exchanges and e-commerce companies, work in tandem.

The platform ensures quick, decisive, and system-based effective action to prevent the flow of money from the victim's account to the cyber fraudster's account and the seized money is restored to the victim following due legal process, it said.

"Since its launch in April 2021, so far this platform has been able to save more than Rs 16 billion from going into the hands of fraudsters, and thus benefiting more than 5,75,000 victims," it said.

(Inputs from PTI)