Sarah 
A recent case of a Mumbai businessman who was cheated out of ₹2.75 crore through a sophisticated method of online gambling has again created fears surrounding cyber fraud, more so in the case of online gaming sites like Teen Patti and virtual casinos. This analysis will provide the facts in the case, background in context, methodology adopted in the fraud, issues debated, and societal implications.
According to Mumbai police, the victim of a businessman who wishes to remain anonymous for privacy reasons was lured into online Teen Patti and casino games via a mobile app. All of these games were included in the sophisticated scheme because the cheaters first made a small payment to entice the victim, who, with every loss, spent himself to over ₹2.75 crore in numerous different bank accounts, believing he was involved in real gambling having high stakes. When the victim had reasons to believe he was losing his funds to a scam, he went to the authorities. An investigation found that the scam was running within a systematic group that used game algorithms to manipulate the results of the games to incur as little loss as possible for the target that invested more money into the games before losing everything.
History
India’s online gaming market has exploded as a result of penetration of fast-growing smartphones, low-cost internet, and expansion of traditional card games such as Teen Patti. Although most online sites are licensed and legal, online gaming is still rich terrain for cyber criminals and phishers to prey on unsuspecting victims using fixed games and phishing operations.
In accordance with a report from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), India reported over 1.5 lakh cases of cyber fraud in 2023 alone, an increase of 25% from the year before. The majority of crimes were contributed by online gaming scams, mainly in tier 1 cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.
Some aspects of this case pose serious questions on:
Authenticity and Verification: What, if at all, were the verification processes in place to validate the authenticity of the gaming platform? Did the businessman exercise due diligence?
Legal Status of the Platform: Was the platform legal in India? Gambling on the internet is in a limbo in India, with some states legally prohibiting it and others permitting gambling but under regulatory authorization.
Banking Controls: Most transfers of large amounts of money from banks and accounts had no controls or flags.
Victim Naiveness: The case also displays psychological tactics employed by fraudsters, such as small victories to establish trust, otherwise referred to as “social engineering.”
Similarly, scams have been reported across India. In 2022, a player from Hyderabad lost ₹1.5 crore to a gambling app that was run in the same manner. In 2023, everything has had a great bearing, leading to an intense immediate action taken by the Government of Tamil Nadu, wherein, following several suicides that had taken place due to money losses in online games, an ordinance was introduced that prohibits online gambling.
The UK and Australia, for example, have very strict laws on what is considered gambling, and they have proper licensing and age checks along with risk warning notices. We are light-years away from that in India.
Preventative Measures
Legislation: It is highly necessary to have a national policy encompassing online gaming, with a process of licensing, transparency requirements, and all consumer protection problems.
Payment Monitoring: Banks and payment gateways need to be tracked through sophisticated fraud-detection algorithms to detect abnormal payment transactions, and especially those connected with gaming websites.
Public Awareness: Public information campaigns conducted by the government and the non-profit sector are necessary to inform the public about the dangers associated with online gambling and how to identify fraudulent websites.
Law Enforcement Training: Specialized training and equipment are required for cybercrime units to track down and close online scams.
The incident with the Mumbai businessman cheated of ₹2.74 crore is not an isolated case, but rather a continuing trend involving cyber scams taking advantage of the boom in online gaming. This incident illustrates the intersection of psychological manipulation, technological sophistication, and regulatory gaps.
Individuals and organizations, along with government regulatory bodies, must act together to prevent digital fraud, even if several actors collectively could still react to the increasing prevalence of fraud, exemplified by the incident with the businessman. Digital contexts must through regulatory action, better public education, and joined-up enforcement of established regulations, on top of the other previously identified fraud deterrents, and then the digital space could be made less or insignificant level of risk when engaging in economic activities or pure entertainment alike.
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