Sleepy Jharkhand town's con artists give Hyderabad cyber cops nightmares

HYDERABAD: A nondescript little town in Jharkhand's Jamtara district is much in news these days with police from various states, including cybercrime cops from Hyderabad, making rounds to the place. Having emerged as one of the biggest cybercrime hubs in the country, Jamtara has a separate cybercrime cell now - which one would least expect to operate from this small town. Increasing one-time password (OTP) frauds and debit-credit card racket cases from Jamtara forced the hand of Jharkhand police, who opened an exclusive cell in 2017.
Jamtara district, which has a population of 7.9 lakh (as per 2011 census), is home to a large number of youth who are jobless and educated not beyond Intermediate. "A majority of the fraudsters are youngsters aged below 25 years and mostly without a job. They get into cybercrimes for easy money," says DCP (crime), Cyberabad, Rohini Priyadarshini.
Rohini, who was part of the investigating teams which visited Jamtara, says the local youth do not even understand the repurcussions of the crimes they are getting into. "During questioning, they would say 'mein cyber hoon' or 'woh cyber karte hai' meaning 'I am a cyber criminal' or 'Those people do cybercrimes'," she recalled.
Not just Rohini, city cybercrime cops in a large number are headed to Jamtara, some 1,560 km away from Hyderabad, more often than not, to solve OTP frauds having roots in Jamtara and victims belonging to Hyderabad. "Almost every month, our teams visit Jamtara to detect cybercrime cases. But, there is very little help from local police," Raghu Vir, additional DCP, cybercrime (Hyderabad), told TOI. This year alone, police have registered as many as 46 FIRs in connection with OTP-related frauds. The complaints stand at a staggering 1,200. Cyberabad police say that over 80% of the offenders are traced to Jamtara - the latest instance being Wednesday's arrest of nine offenders hailing from the district. "The offenders obtain bank details of gullible people here and withdraw money from various ATMs," said Rohini.
What is worrisome is the fact that the fraudsters escape even before the cops arrive in Jamtara. Recently, a team of seven cops had gone to Jamtara to nab an offender who cheated Rs 5 lakh from a Hyderabad-based victim. "We wrote a letter to the local cops to assist us in arresting the offender before we went there. By the time we reached the place, the fraudster made good his escape," inspector, cybercrime, D Prashanth, told TOI.
In the last four months, the city cybercrime cops arrested five persons. The city cybercrime wing opened 35 history-sheets against some of the Jamtara-based fraudsters.