New Delhi: 

“To strengthen the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes including digital arrest scams in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the Central Government has taken steps which, inter-alia, include setting up the ‘Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre’ (I4C) as an attached office of the home ministry to deal with all types of cyber crimes in the country, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner,” said Kumar in the Rajya Sabha.

The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has identified and blocked more than 3,962 Skype IDs and 83,668 WhatsApp accounts used for Digital Arrest, said Minister of State for Home, Bandi Sanjay Kumar in the Parliament on Wednesday.

He said that the Central Government and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have devised a system to identify and block incoming international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers that appear to be originating within India. Directions have been issued to the TSPs for blocking of such incoming international spoofed calls.

“Till 28.02.2025, more than 7.81 lakhs SIM cards and 2,08,469 IMEIs as reported by Police authorities have been blocked by Government of India,” the minister stated.

“The ‘Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System’, under I4C, has been launched in 2021 for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters. So far, a financial amount of more than Rs 4,386 Crore has been saved in more than 13.36 lakh complaints. A toll-free Helpline number ‘1930’ has been operationalized to get assistance in lodging online cyber complaints,” Kumar informed.

Responding to a question raised by Dr Fauzia Khan n the extent of the rise in “digital arrest” scams where fraudsters impersonate law enforcement officials to extort money from citizens and the specific steps taken by the Ministry to address this issue, Kumar said that till February 28 this year more than 7.81 lakhs SIM cards and 2,08,469 IMEIs as reported by Police authorities have been blocked by Government of India.

He said that to spread awareness on cyber crime, the Central Government has taken steps which, inter-alia, include dissemination of messages through SMS, I4C social media account including X (formerly Twitter) (@CyberDost), Facebook (CyberDostI4C), Instagram (cyberDostI4C), Telegram (cyberdosti4c), Radio campaign, engaged MyGov for publicity in multiple mediums, organizing cyber safety and security awareness weeks in association with States and UTs, publishing of handbook for adolescents and students, digital displays on railway stations and airports across, etc.

Kumar further said that to address emerging cyber threats, weekly online peer-learning sessions are conducted every Friday for law enforcement agencies and CAPFs, focusing on cybercrime trends, investigative techniques, and countermeasures.

“So far, 98 peer-learning sessions have been delivered. Residential Training has been imparted to more than 3,785 LEAs’ personnel, Judicial officers, Public Prosecutors & Forensics Scientists,” Kumar said.

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