The Ministry of Home Affairs has released a new awareness campaign for offshore illegal gambling apps, informing the users to be aware of foreign apps as they may be fraud and might cause financial harm(s) to the user.

The campaign was spotted on Cyber Dost’s Twitter post, which is a Cyber-Safety and Cybersecurity awareness handle maintained by Ministry of Home Affairs. It encourages people to avoid the use of apps uploaded by foreign nations without confirming if they are registered.

Users who have been hit with a financial fraud by these illegal gambling apps are instructed to call the helpline number or register their complaint on the official cybercrime website.

Many offshore betting websites and apps usually allow players to win in the beginning with good returns, but after the user gets addicted and invest large sums, they either keep losing or have the website refuses to cash out the winnings.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had recently blocked over 100 domain names of illegal gaming websites that provided these app downloads as a way to curb cyber-fraud in the online gaming sector.

While the campaigns can only tell the users to be aware, it is ultimately up to the users to verify that the legality of online gaming apps they are using and whether such portals are foreign-based or registered and compliant with laws in India.