Amid crackdown, cyber scam gangs moving to Africa, Pak & Sri Lanka: I4C chief | Hyderabad News
Hyderabad: Cyber scam compounds operating out of Southeast Asia are shifting their bases to Africa and other parts of Asia, including Madagascar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as Indian agencies intensify efforts to dismantle cross-border cybercrime networks, said Rajesh Kumar, CEO of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), on Tuesday.He was speaking at the fourth Joint Cyber Crime Coordination Team (JCCT-IV) workshop in Hyderabad, which brought together police officials from Telangana and 13 other states, besides representatives of central agencies, to strengthen coordination in tackling transnational cybercrime.Presenting an overview of the national cybercrime landscape at the fourth Joint Cyber Crime Coordination Team (JCCT-IV) workshop, hosted by the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) in association with I4C at TGiCCC, Rajesh Kumar said sustained action by the Indian govt against organised cybercrime gangs operating from compounds in Southeast Asia had forced them to relocate to countries such as Madagascar, Pakistan and even Sri Lanka. He also said all states, except one, had notified their State Cyber Crime Coordination Centres (S4Cs).The workshop was attended by 45 officers from other states and representatives of 11 central agencies, including CERT-In, RBI, ED, CBI, IB, DoT and NFSU, along with officials from the four city commissionerates. Seven JCCTs are operational nationwide, including one in Hyderabad, to facilitate information-sharing among states and enable coordinated action against cybercrime.Describing the Supreme Court hearing on digital arrests as an opportunity, Rajesh Kumar urged states to place their concerns before the apex court. He outlined a series of second-generation reforms aimed at easing the workload of investigating officers. These include a unified investigation platform, a standard operating procedure from the RBI empowering banks to stop suspicious transactions, and special nationwide operations against cybercrime infrastructure, which are expected to be launched soon.Inaugurating the workshop, DGP CV Anand said cybercrime complaints had increased by 24% across the country in 2024-25, even as Telangana recorded a 3% decline. Financial losses to cybercrime in the state had also come down by 20%, against a national average reduction of 4%.Calling for a change in the approach to tackling cybercrime, the DGP said the focus should move beyond recovering money lost to fraud and shift towards preventing such crimes in the first place. This would require denying criminals access to potential victims, communication channels, phone numbers and usable bank accounts.TGCSB director Shikha Goel pointed out that the masterminds and financiers behind cybercrime operations continued to evade law enforcement because criminal networks functioned as interconnected entities, while police investigations remained confined by jurisdictional boundaries. She stressed the need for intelligence-led investigations, real-time information-sharing and coordinated operations involving multiple states to effectively dismantle these networks.The workshop also featured sessions on mule bank accounts, crimes against women and children, AI regulation and the use of artificial intelligence for detecting cybercrime. The recommendations emerging from the deliberations will be circulated among all participants for follow-up action.
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