Secretariat

Impersonation through fake brand stores, cloned support pages and scam ads is one of the fastest-growing forms of social media fraud. Meta removed over 159 million scam ads in 2025, and the FTC recorded $2.1 billion in reported social media scam losses for Americans. Meta's Brand Rights Protection tool gives verified trademark owners AI-assisted monitoring, bulk reporting and allowlisting to find and remove fakes on Facebook and Instagram.

Liberian police and joint security forces have arrested more than 67 foreign nationals, mostly Chinese citizens, in raids on three suspected cyber-fraud sites in Paynesville. Officers seized over $1.3 million in counterfeit US dollars, more than 100 phones carrying up to 20 WhatsApp accounts each, and over 50 computers. Liberia has asked the FBI for forensic help. On 8 October, a court issued a writ of habeas corpus for several of the detainees.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for a global framework to tackle deepfakes and cross-border cyber fraud. He urged the GSMA and telecom operators worldwide to build a joint mechanism that stops fraud before it reaches users. Speaking at the 10th India Mobile Congress in New Delhi on 8 October 2026, the Prime Minister said governments, tech firms, operators and banks must act together.

Pakistan’s NCCIA has raided yet another illegal call centre in Lahore, this one allegedly posing as telecom providers to defraud victims in the United Kingdom. Nine people were held and laptops and phones loaded with VoIP calling software were seized. It is the latest in a run of near-weekly raids that raises a hard question: why do these operations keep reappearing?

India’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) held S4C Connect, a workshop on cryptocurrency and darkweb crime, in New Delhi on 8 October 2026. Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, I4C CEO Rajesh Kumar, state and UT cybercrime chiefs and industry experts attended. The aim was to tighten coordination between the Centre and states as crypto laundering and darkweb markets drive more fraud.

India’s Ministry of Communications has rejected Elon Musk’s claim that unnamed “oligarchs” are blocking Starlink, calling any suggestion of an unfair or discriminatory framework “baseless and misconceived.” The ministry says three satellite licensees, Starlink among them, are all in the same mandatory security assessment. No evidence was ever offered for Musk’s charge.

Japan’s JPCERT/CC has warned of a run of intrusions around September 2026 that leaked large volumes of personal data from Japanese organisations. Attackers scanned for known flaws, reverse-engineered mobile apps to find hidden API endpoints and keys, abused internal admin APIs and NoSQL injection, and exploited the Metabase SQL injection flaw CVE-2026-72898. Internal BI tools and staff systems were also hit.

India’s Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached about ₹2.12 crore ($250,000) across 43 bank accounts in a digital-arrest scam that targeted a Guwahati senior citizen. Fraudsters posed as TRAI, Mumbai Crime Branch and CBI officers on WhatsApp, coerced 19 transfers totaling about ₹2.13 crore, then layered the money through mule accounts nationwide.

Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency has raided the Abbasi Call Center in Rawalpindi, alleging an international cyber-fraud ring used fake Telegram profiles to build emotional relationships with foreign nationals, mainly Australians, then steered them into fake YouTube tasks and USDT crypto investments. Computers, servers and phones were seized. A case has been registered under PECA and the Pakistan Penal Code.

Mumbai Crime Branch has arrested a 36-year-old Madhya Pradesh software developer accused of building and selling 2,805 malicious Android APKs to fraud gangs. Police link the apps to 9,673 victims nationwide and about ₹150 crore in fraud. The case shows how ready-made malware is sold as a service outside Google Play.

Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency says its Multan unit has arrested two men allegedly involved in registering and using multiple fake SIM cards linked to financial scams. Officers recovered two mobile phones. The case fits a wider pattern of “mule SIMs” used to hide the real callers behind fraud.

India’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has warned that fake AI trading ads on social media are being used to hijack Instagram accounts. Victims are asked to fill in a sign-up form and enter a “verification code” that is actually their Instagram login code. Citing Meta, I4C said 16,000 such cases surfaced in one month.