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Wednesday, February 18, 2026
TopicScams

Topic: Scams

After 465% spike in 2024, MHA data shows digital arrest scams are on a decline in India

Indians lost Rs 1,918 crore to digital arrest scams in 2024. Cases still being reported, but awareness has helped curb menace, says MHA official.

At Myanmar’s ‘KK Farm’, Indian cyber slaves paid in baht, running scams worth billions of dollars

Individuals worked in the compound guarded by armed militia & the money earned was converted to crypto with help of finance centres that facilitated the conversion, it is learnt.

Hundreds in Kanpur paid to use ‘anti-ageing machine from Israel’. It turned out to be pyramid scheme

Gym owner stands accused of defrauding hundreds under guise of ‘anti-ageing’ treatment using chamber-sized machine ‘imported from Israel’ that can seat 10 people at one time.

SubscriberWrites: India’s fascination with the phone number derails privacy, opens up owner to scams

Phone number is personal, ubiquitous, and readily accessible. But the same attributes that make a phone number so powerful make it vulnerable, writes Dr Anoop Agarwal.

Kolkata is India’s newest, biggest scam zone. Police, YouTubers, mice can’t shut it down

With over Rs 3,000 crore coming in each day, Kolkata is no Jamtara. The scam is international, the scamsters IT experts, the victims American.

How ‘Chinese app scams’ have been targeting lakhs of Indians, looting crores since WFH took off

These scams work by enticing people with small payouts on investments or bets, and building trust. When they start investing more money, it disappears, say police.

How Neel Patel ‘conned’ Indians out of crores, with dreams of Atmanirbhar Bharat & a cheap iPhone

Swadeshi apps and influential Twitter friends drew many to Patel. As his father is arrested as part of probe into alleged multi-crore web of scams, Patel says he didn't do anything illegal.

Curious case of Bengal ‘sports clubs’ TMC govt backs with Rs 5L aid where little sport happens

In 2014, Mamata govt started a scheme that assured Rs 5 lakh in aid to sports clubs. Govt claims 25,000 clubs benefited, but most of the funds allegedly ended up elsewhere.

‘Miracle’ cures to ‘vaccines’, dark web is seeing a Covid gold rush

Cybersecurity researchers says Covid has been like one big Black Friday sale for the dark web, with almost $100 million worth of related goods on sale.

A Rs 2,000-crore scam in Bengaluru has thrown up cracks among Muslim Congress leaders

Congress MLAs Roshan Baig and Zameer Ahmed Khan, who are known rivals, have denied any connection with the alleged Bengaluru con, which affected over 35,000 people.

On Camera

Tarique Rahman’s govt is on a mission of de-Yunusification. It will fix India-Bangladesh ties

Going forward, India and Bangladesh will have to double the effort to fix the damage done to bilateral ties by the Yunus administration.

Venezuela crude returns to India’s oil basket. But only as ‘supplementary’ supply

Indian refiners are testing Venezuelan barrels again as Russian supply sinks, but analysts say volumes will remain limited due to refinery constraints & supply capacity.

US military commander, envoy Sergio Gor visit Indian Army Western Command, Bengaluru next

At the Western Army Command, the American delegation was briefed on the capabilities of the formation, past operations and the path ahead.

The new Great Game—Trump’s playing for time, China for leverage & India for wiggle room

This is the game every nation is now learning to play. Some are finding new allies or seeing value among nations where they’d seen marginal interest. The starkest example is India & Europe.