Cyber fraud .. the new age crime

 Cyber fraud .. the new age crime

Mewat is a historic region comprising Nuh district of Haryana, Bharatpur and Alwar Tehsil of Rajasthan and some part of Mathura in UP. Mewati dialect is distinct and more towards Haryanvi dialect. Though geographically Mewat  exists no more, the Mewati gharana in classical singing still well known to music lovers. Of late Mewat region has replaced Jamtara gang as new hub of cyber crime. 

Kota, the town famous for IIT entrance coaching is 100km away from Nuh. In Nuh also several coaching centres are there wher school dropouts come to take a two months course to learn the art of duping people of their money by   telly-calling  unsuspecting victims. In fact cyber fraud has become the main source of income for most of the household. It is a full blown well organised racket with compartmentalised operation with synchronisation between various arms of the operation. 

The training usually cost between 25000/- to one lac. Even boys from far off Rewari, Palwal, Faridabad come to attend these courses.  The trainer usually organise one month classroom training with various aspect of cyber fraud including the art of convincing target, voice modulation, few English sentences. They use sophisticated voice modulation software. In the second month practical demonstrations took place where trainer act as customer and refine the trainees overall approach. 

Trained people mostly ranging in the age bracket of 14-30, then become part of tele-caller gang. The handler gang is separate. The get the prospective victims number from websites, by opening fake mail ID and sending links (as if it is from Bank or a government agency) to lure people (like linking Adhar card with PAN or apply for a loan) to click the link. Most popular is contacts received from OLX, platform for selling secondhand products. 

The third gang is responsible for opening fake bank accounts through fake Adhar card, constantly closing and opening new account to avoid detection. 

Then there is another gang which patrols the area from where the telly-callers operating. The cyber fraud stars prefer to operate from open space where connectivity is good and usually it is a hillock which part of Aravali hill in Mewat region. 

One tele caller described his typical approach to a victim who intends to sell his car. Fraud-star will usually give his introduction as a army officer posted in remote J&K and intend to visit hometown within few days. He knows that Indian army personnel draw huge respect from civilians. After little bit of negotiation he will settle for a price and intend to Transfer immediately the money. Then he will send a link and tell the seller that he first wanted to send little amount for testing the money transfer. When the victim successfully got 5/10 rupee then he will be directed to click another link. This time as soon as he press the link huge amount gets debited from his account. After successful operating he will change the SIM and use a new number to woo next victim.

A cool six hours a day could get a cyber fraud start anything between 4-6 lacs monthly income. No doubt thousands of youngsters attracted towards this new illegal profession.

Even this well organised racket hold a yearly award presentation ceremony with gala events in farmhouse or Banquet hall where cash award given to top performers. Once they hold the function in Shimla where cash award of 25 lacs given to winners of various categories.

There is another type of cyber fraud started recently which was published in HT last month. Here the fraud-stars target prospective targets mostly middle aged people who search for bride in various websites. With Chinese voice modulation device the telly-caller posing as woman lure the victim for a video call and mange to show a nude girl in video with sexchatting and recording the same. Later on money got extracted from the person threatening the victim to share the video in social media.

There are reasons why cyber crimes proliferated in this region. Bundelkhand region in many years back was famous for Chambal dacoits. They were terror in the nearby villages and used to commit crimes with impunity. This was because UP, MP state border was close by. It was easy for the dacoits to commit crime in one state and then crossover to other state to avoid police arrest. Also the topography of region with undulating landscape helped the criminals to hide. Similar is the case for the cyber crime fraud stars. They manage easily to sneak into neighbouring state or hide in hillocks to avoid police raids.

The other major reasons are unemployment and backwardness. According to a Niti Aayog report, 101 districts were studied on 49 development indicators, such as health, education, agriculture, financial inclusion, skill development, and basic infrastructure, and Nuh scored 26 percent, which is the lowest score in the country. 

Atleast 500 gangs are operating in this type of cyber crime. The Nuh district police officials said at least 28,000 cyber fraud cases from across country, involving frauds worth 7100 crore, were solved by Nuh police. In all, 1,346 cases were registered against these suspects from Nuh from across the country.

Debdatta 

30/06/2023