The Indian government is joining hands with Meta to combat the rising issue of online scams in the country with a new campaign called “Scam se Bacho” that will be digitally creating awareness among Indians.
This initiative of Meta is being launched in collaboration with key ministries, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).
The note from the PIB says, the campaign aims to combat the growing menace of scams and cyber frauds, aligning with the government’s commitment to addressing the rising cases of online scams and enhancing cyber safety.
During the event this week, the I&B secretary highlighted that India, with over 900 million internet users, has seen extraordinary digital growth under the Digital India initiative, becoming a global leader in UPI transactions.
Having said that, the growth has also made it easy and popular target for scammers with 1.1 million cyber fraud cases reported in 2023 and more expected this year. “By leveraging Meta’s global expertise, the campaign will empower every Indian to protect themselves from cyber threats, ensuring that our digital progress is matched by robust digital security,” he added.
The rise of UPI payments and QR code payments have catapulted these scams, primarily because of people not being aware of how the system works. Gradually, we have seen banks and other entities share a word of caution while making payments with a pop-up message and more efforts are needed to thwart such cases in the years to come.
