Pakistan and India, both neighboring countries, have reached the top of the list of most online scammers in the world.
Especially if you live in a South Asian third-world country, you need to be aware of the potential risks of internet scams in today’s digital world. As online shopping, social media, and digital banking become more common, criminals are becoming more adept at hiding behind screens and committing crimes.
Pakistan
Banking Mohtasib Pakistan reported 37,364 financial scam complaints in 2021, up 46% from 2020. In 2022, Banking Mohtasib Pakistan received 19,670 complaints.
In spite of Pakistan’s lack of technological advancements, its scamming, hacking, and online fraud portfolio is not small. Almost all of Pakistan’s banks were hacked in 2018, and vast sums of money were stolen from people’s accounts.
The cyber-security incident exposed over 19,000 card details from 22 Pakistani banks, including over 8,000 account holders from roughly ten Pakistani banks.
Many Pakistanis are robbed of their money every day by scammers through various methods, such as financial scams and other frauds.
The perpetrators of such activities are professional scammers who mask their IP addresses and call from bank-like UAN numbers in order to obtain sensitive information and then use it to gain further bank account details. In most cases, they operate from rural areas, stealing poor people’s identities to buy SIM cards in order to trap them.
Both private and state-owned banks should upgrade their banking systems and implement enhanced security measures, such as anti-skimming devices, to protect their customers.
While the public should be reminded repeatedly not to give their bank details to anyone who asks on social media or messaging apps, the State Bank of Pakistan should also play a role here.
Pakistani music streaming site users’ personal information was stolen in January 2021 by hackers. In August 2021, hackers attacked Pakistan’s largest data center controlled by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and managed to crack the hyper-V software by Microsoft, shutting down all the official websites operated by the tax machinery.
Indian
Almost no foreigner has visited India without encountering a scam or being defrauded. Online scams have become increasingly common around the world, and India has seen a significant increase in online fraud in recent years.
The different tactics used by cybercriminals in India range from fake websites to phishing emails and other devious schemes.
Only Nigeria is ranked higher in the ranking of the top camming countries than India.
Despite the fact that many people still aren’t familiar with UPI, some marketplaces that allow people to sell pre-owned belongings have seen an uptick in UPI frauds.
The number of UPI frauds is increasing rapidly, including impersonation, phishing, and OTP access. Many users have fallen victim to online scammers and lost a lot of money. It is common for scammers to impersonate businesses and notable merchants and ask customers to pay in advance, or even use an UPI handle that appears to be an official account in order to get in touch with you.