The Indian internet has taken a massive and malicious turn in recent months

Tanu Kapoor, a 30-year-old media employee from Noida, has blocked 15 international numbers from which she has been receiving calls and WhatsApp messages offering “jobs” since May.

“They (persons contacting her through such numbers) want me to pay for liking content on social media, some of them are even asking me to invest and promising a sure shot return but I know all this is nothing but a scam,” Kapoor told Quartz.

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Charul Shandliya, a 38-year-old English teacher from Delhi, has also received such “job opportunities.”

“They are really convincing, too. The person on the other side will talk to you in such a nice and convincing manner that you would almost believe them,” Shandilya said.

Not everyone sees through such scam-calls, though.

A 33-year-old stock broker in Gujarat attempted suicide on May 26 after losing more than $36,000 for such a “job.” He fell prey to an online fraud promising him money for “liking” YouTube videos.

India is not new to online scams or phone call-frauds. However, it doesn’t end there. There is also a thriving hacking industry that has developed in the country, if recent reports are to be believed, and it has international dimensions.

How the scam callers are duping Indians

There seems to have been a steep rise in the number of such incidents being reported.

“In my recent conversations with nearly 100 victims of online fraud, I discovered that collectively, they lost over $303,000 to scammers,” Munzir Ahmed wrote in India Today last month.

The scamsters usually follow a modus operandi that is well-known by now: A message or call from, say, Indonesia (country code +62 ), the US (+1), or Vietnam (+84) explains the job, promising attractive pay.

The recipient is required to “like” vlogs, promotional marketing videos, or other content on various social media platforms.

“In an era of content creation, this doesn’t seem like a fraud, but with a little awareness you’d be able to recognize that you are being targeted,” Kapoor said.

Indeed, many Indians have taken to social media to raise awareness against this menace.

What did WhatsApp say

Messaging platform WhatsApp has asked users to block such numbers instantly. Last month, it launched an online safety drive to raise awareness and has assured the Indian government it would help “weed out bad actors from the platform.”

“...Unlike traditional SMS or other platforms, WhatsApp gives you the option to block and report the sender right away to break the cycle of scams. Users may also receive calls from unknown international or domestic phone numbers, do not answer these calls and block and report such accounts,” it had said in a press release in May.

Private telecom services have also been sending messages to their customers, cautioning them against responding to such job offers.

The dark side of the internet

In the past, too, Indians have lost millions to online fraud like ponzi scams, loans-through-apps, and other such schemes.

The year 2022 alone saw 1.39 million cybersecurity incidents being reported, government data show. The country is among the most vulnerable in matters of internet security.

“...India is home to a vast and thriving cyberattack industry,” The New Yorker reported earlier this month, exposing the country’s secret hacking industry. The report alleged that foreign agencies, among others, pay millions of dollars to firms operating in this grey area in India to get their job done.

“...there are about ten to fifteen other Indian companies doing this...We have seen close to a hundred and twenty thousand victims over the past ten years, so it really is an industry,” a Geneva-based private investigator told the magazine, concluding that “the hacking-for-hire business in India is much bigger than most experts had imagined.”

India’s vulnerable on various fronts

India’s considerably lower digital literacy levels only worsen the problem. Only 38% of Indian households are digitally literate (pdf) even though it is expected to have a billion smartphone users by 2026.

However, the most important factor of all fuelling such scams is the level of unemployment itself in the country.

India’s chronic unemployment problem has worsened since the start of the year. In April, it stood at 8.11% and at 7.8% in March, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a think-tank that tracks business and economic data.

Jobs creation isn’t anywhere close to matching its swelling workforce, further worsening joblessness, Quartz reported in May.

The problem is manifested, for instance, in the absurdly long queues for even low-paying government jobs: India Today reported yesterday (June 6) that the government of Uttar Pradesh had received more than 5.5 million applications for the positions of gardeners, watchmen, and office peons. Some of the applicants had qualifications such as MBAs, Mtech, and MSc.

Evidently, the “opportunity” is huge for scamsters to tap.

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