Amid the rising cases of digital arrest scams in the country, the government has begun cracking down on scammers. According to reports from police officials, over 6.69 lakh SIM cards and 1.32 lakh IMEI numbers have been blocked. In a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, stated that the central government has taken several measures to strengthen systems to tackle digital arrest scams and other cybercrimes effectively.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has set up the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to combat all forms of cybercrime in the country. In 2021, under I4C, the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System was launched to enable immediate reporting of financial fraud and prevent misappropriation of funds by cybercriminals.
The minister also revealed that, to date, over ₹3,431 crore has been recovered from more than 9.94 lakh complaints. He further mentioned that the government and telecom service providers have developed a system to identify and block international calls made from fake Indian numbers.
Kumar highlighted that recently, cybercriminals have made international fake calls under various scams such as fake digital arrests, FedEx scams, and impersonating government or police officials. Telecom service providers have been directed to block such fake international calls.
Under I4C, a Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC) has been established where representatives from major banks, financial intermediaries, payment aggregators, telecom service providers, IT intermediaries, and law enforcement agencies from states and union territories collaborate to take immediate action and work together to tackle cybercrime.
With the cooperation of banks and financial institutions, I4C has also launched a registry of suspected cybercriminals. Additionally, a new feature called ‘Report and Check Suspect’ has been introduced, enabling citizens to search the I4C’s database to identify suspected cybercriminals through a ‘Suspect Search’ feature.