India has cracked down on foreign scammers in its latest bid to counter cyberspace crimes, as six Nigerians were arrested on suspicion of carrying out text message and e-mail frauds against hundreds of people.
People were duped after being told they had won a lottery.
Several mobile phones, computers and memory sticks were recovered from the suspects, as police took them into custody.
The arrests came after a cue from security firm Kaspersky Labs, which reported that 14.8 % of spam mails sent three months prior to September 2011 were from India, the highest in the world.
Internet security specialist Vijay Mukhi, based in Mumbai, pointed out that they have an Information Technology Act that was introduced in 2000. "But we don’t have any convictions under it and it’s silent on spam," Mukhsi added, pointing to an inefficient mechanism to bring violators under conviction.
Another security expert David Emm said it is a good sign the authorities have been taking this as a serious issue of late.
India has over 112m Internet users which is the third largest in the world after the US and China, according to figures given by The Internet and Mobile Association of India.
