According to the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs report for 2024, such scams generally target unemployed youth, housewives, students and needy people with financial insecurities.

Scammers lure their victims into this path by promising fake investments and make them lose large amounts of money in a short time in order to make high profits. He notes that these scams are increasingly being promoted through Google ads and messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram.

Pig butchering scams essentially constitute an “investment trap.” Scammers often offer their victims a fake investment opportunity and steal their deposits after gaining their trust with the promise of quick profits.

One of the characteristics of such scams is that the cryptocurrencies used are used both as a tool for entrapment and as a tool for laundering stolen funds. After falling victim to these scams, most of the victims try to cover the money they lost, usually by borrowing money.

Government authorities in India are taking a number of measures to prevent such crimes. The Indian Cyber ​​Crime Coordination Center, in partnership with Google and Facebook, is taking proactive steps to detect fraudulent activities.

This collaboration is focused on flagging harmful ads, detecting fraudulent digital credit applications and uncovering phishing campaigns.

With the rise of crypto scams, in order to combat such crimes more effectively, the government is taking steps to quickly detect and block suspicious transactions by unifying crypto exchanges on a central platform.

The report also states that police across India have been trained on monitoring cryptocurrency transactions, seizing digital assets and analyzing blockchain evidence. These trainings aim to ensure that the police can track and prevent crypto frauds more effectively.

India has also become a major target for external fraud networks as a country where cryptocurrencies continue to be adopted at a rapid pace. While organized crimes, especially from regions such as southeast Asia, target India, local authorities are also increasing inspections on the sector.

In 2023, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of India made it mandatory for crypto exchanges to register as reporting entities before they can operate. These regulations aim to make the cryptocurrency sector more regulated and to prevent illegal fund flows in the sector.

India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) agency has also investigated particularly large-scale fraud cases, uncovering crimes costing millions of dollars in the process.

In June 2024, ED froze over $3 million in assets related to the Highrich group crypto Ponzi scheme and busted another fake cryptocurrency scam, preventing a loss of $800,000.

These measures are seen as an important step in the fight against crypto scams in India. Authorities aim to raise public awareness with more regulations and education in the fight against such crimes.