IT Ministry Blocks More Than 100 Websites Involved in Organised Illegal Investments, Job Frauds

Over 100 websites, which facilitated organised illegal investments and task-based part time job frauds, were blocked following a recommendation of the Union Home Ministry.

According to an official statement, these websites were being operated by overseas actors.

The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), a wing of the Union Home Ministry, through its vertical National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit (NCTAU) had last week identified and recommended over 100 websites involved in organised investment and task-based part time job frauds be blocked.

Following this, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), invoking its power under the Information Technology Act, 2000, has blocked these websites, the statement said.

These websites, which facilitated task-based organised illegal investment related to economic crimes, were learnt to be operated by overseas actors and were using digital advertisement, chat messengers and mule and rented accounts.

The proceeds from the large-scale economic frauds were seen to be laundered out of India using card network, cryptocurrency, overseas ATM withdrawals and international Fintech companies, the statement said.

The I4C is an initiative of the Home Ministry to deal with cybercrimes in the country in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.

Earlier this year, MeitY ordered the blocking of 232 apps operated by overseas entities, including Chinese, for being involved in betting, gambling, and unauthorised loan services.

Fintech firms LazyPay, IndiaBulls Home Loans, and Kissht were on the list of blocked websites. As per the list, MeitY issued orders to block lazypay.in, which is a subsidiary of Dutch investment firm Prosus.

A Chase India report in May proposed setting up a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) for the digital lending industry.