• The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, has alerted the public about online booking frauds, especially those targeting Char Dham pilgrims and tourists, across the country.

• These frauds are being perpetrated through fake websites, deceptive social media pages, Facebook posts, and paid advertisements on search engines such as Google.

• The scams involve the creation of professional-looking but fake websites and social media profiles and WhatsApp accounts offering various services.

• These include helicopter bookings for Kedarnath, guest house and hotel bookings for Char Dham pilgrims, online cab or taxi reservation, holiday packages and religious tours.

• Unsuspecting individuals, upon making payments through these portals, often realise they have been duped when no confirmation or service is received and the contact numbers become unreachable.

• Always verify the authenticity of websites before making any payments. Verify before clicking on ‘sponsored’ or unknown links on Google, Facebook or WhatsApp. Cross-check bookings only through official government portals or trusted travel agencies, the I4C said.

• It also urged the public to report such websites immediately on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal at cybercrime.gov.in or call 1930 in case of any fraud.

I4C adopts a multi-pronged strategy to check scams

• To check such scams, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) is adopting a multi-pronged strategy.

• Among the steps taken include scam signal exchange through which scam signals are being regularly exchanged with IT intermediaries such as Google, WhatsApp, Facebook for proactive detection.

• Cybercrime hotspots are being identified and states and Union Territories from where these originate are being sensitised.

• Fake websites and advertisements and impersonating social media accounts access are being disabled to protect citizens.

• Suspect checking and reporting features on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal are being developed to facilitate hassle-free reporting.

Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)

• Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) is an initiative of the ministry of home affairs to provide a national platform for tackling cybercrime in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. 

• I4C is working towards its vision to create an effective framework and ecosystem for prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of cybercrime.

• I4C aims to strengthen the capabilities of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and improve coordination among various stakeholders and LEAs. 

• It is continuously working for the enhancement of the nation’s technical capabilities to deal with cybercrime and to further strengthen the operational architecture and coordination among LEAs and other stakeholders.

• The focus of I4C has been on tackling all the issues related with cybercrime for all citizens, such as improving coordination among various central and state agencies, driving change in India’s overall capability to tackle cybercrime and facilitating capacity development of LEAs to better respond to cybercrime.

• I4C also focusses on strengthening the fight against cybercrime, committed against women and children. 

• Ease of filing cybercrime related complaints has been improved with the various initiatives of NCRP. 

• I4C has assisted states/UTs in capacity building of police officers and judicial officers in the areas of cyber forensics, cyber hygiene, cyber-criminology, etc.

Components of I4C: 

i) National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit for reporting threats pertaining to cybercrimes at regular intervals.

ii) National Cybercrime Reporting Portal to report various cybercrime complaints by citizens at all India level on a common platform on 24x7 basis from “anywhere, anytime”.

iii) National Cybercrime Training Centre to impart training to government officials, specially state law enforcement agencies.

iv) National Cybercrime Research & Innovation Centre to carry out research for development of indigenous tools for prevention of cybercrimes.

v) Platform for Joint Cyber Crime Coordination Teams for coordination, sharing of modus operandi of cybercrimes, data/information among states/UTs LEAs.

vi) National Cybercrime Ecosystem Management Unit for creating mass awareness in cyber hygiene for prevention of cybercrimes.

vii) National Cybercrime Forensic Laboratory (Investigation) Ecosystem for helping LEAs in cyber forensics investigation.

National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal

• The portal was launched on a pilot basis on August 30, 2019, and it enables filing of all cybercrimes with specific focus on crimes against women, children, particularly child pornography, child sex abuse material, online content pertaining to rapes and gang-rapes.

• The portal can boost the capacity of law enforcement agencies to investigate cases and will improve the success rate of prosecutions.

• It also focuses on specific crimes, especially those related to finance and social media stalking, cyber bullying, etc.

• The portal will improve coordination among law enforcement agencies of different states, districts and police stations for dealing with cybercrimes in a coordinated and effective manner.

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