WhatsApp biggest social media platform misused by cyber criminals in India

14,746 complaints were related to WhatsApp, 7,651 against Telegram, 7,152 against Instagram, 7,051 against Facebook, and 1,135 against YouTube till March 2024, says MHA report

New Delhi: WhatsApp remains the biggest social media platform that is possibly misused by cyber criminals in India, according to the latest annual report of the Union Home Ministry.

The data published in the report on “cybercrime complaints where Big Tech platforms have been misused” shows that 14,746 complaints were related to WhatsApp, 7,651 against Telegram, 7,152 against Instagram, 7,051 against Facebook, and 1,135 against YouTube till March 2024.

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“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.

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.

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.