India: fake Kerala lottery apps detected on Google Play
The apps were selling tickets online, despite the fact Kerala only sells paper lottery tickets.
India.- Cybersecurity researchers have reported that there are fraudulent apps on the Google Play store that use the official logos of Kerala State Lotteries, National Informatics Center and Kerala state to sell lottery tickets online. They warned that more than a million people had already downloaded the Android apps.
A researcher at CloudSEK, an artificial intelligence-based cybersecurity company, said the developers of the fake apps aimed to take advantage of the popularity of the lottery in the state of Kerala. He claimed their developers used social media accounts with more than 200,000 followers to run fake advertisements impersonating government agencies, including on Telegram groups, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
The Kerala State Lottery Department only sells paper lottery tickets. Online sales are prohibited.
Apart from the Supreme Court’s precedent on skill-based gambling, there is no federal statute to govern India’s gambling industry, with each state taking its own stance on the issue. A panel set up by prime minister Narendra Modi concluded that India should establish a regulatory body for online skill games.
The regulator would classify which online games as based on skill or chance, implement rules to block prohibited formats and enforce stricter gambling regulations. The report recommends that a separate law should be enacted to regulate online gaming as a “long-term measure”.
