Phishing crash courses in Haryana-Rajasthan border villages for 'new Jamtara'

GURGAON: What to do if a WhatsApp call to a random number gets answered, how to write emails with job offers, how to make social media ads that look authentic and are clickbait - these are some of the skills taught in "crash courses" that that have been turning youngsters with smartphones into expert cyber cons in a region that has come to be called the 'new Jamtara'.
Investigations into the notorious phishing networks, following last week's raids at 300 locations in Nuh that led to 65 arrests, have pointed cops to villages along the Haryana-Rajasthan border, in Alwar and Bharatpur, where these training sessions are held, senior police officers told TOI.
An officer involved in the probe said youths pay Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 for these sessions to learn various phishing techniques using just a laptop, a mobile phone and unregistered SIM cards. What follows is waves of cyber fraud that makes headlines daily as dozens of gullible people are cheated.
The revelations have confirmed that there is a well-oiled machinery at play. "We will share our findings with Rajasthan and UP Police to track the masterminds and ensure the arrest of the accused," the officer said.
Police in Haryana and other states have in recent years been tracing a large number of cyber fraud cases that land up at their desks to remote villages at the Haryana (Nuh), Uttar Pradesh (Mathura) and Rajasthan (Bharatpur) trijunction, much like Jamtara, the Jharkhand village that has gained notoriety as a phishing hub.
"We have leads about some villages where these criminals (nabbed during the April 27-28 raids in Nuh) and their aides also train the youth how to get Aadhaar card details and financial data of people to cheat them. They are taught tricks on how to persuade people into giving their sensitive data, and if that doesn't work, threaten them to extort more," a Haryana Police source said.
On the night of April 27, around 5,000 cops swooped on 14 villages in Haryana Police's largest such field operation against cybercrime. Of the 125 suspects detained in the coordinated raids, 65 were subsequently arrested and booked in 16 FIRs.
Cybercrime experts said training centres for phishing techniques have existed for long. Here, the participants aren't just taught how to hack, but also the art of persuasion.
"This practice first started in Jamtara and later spread. Such trainers are on the lookout for jobless youths who would do anything to earn a livelihood. They are taught just to speak confidently and under various pretexts, how to coax consumers into divulging their personal details. The task of these youths is just to ensure that the victim transfers the money or gives the bank details," said Kislay Chaudhary, chairman & CEO of the Indian Cyber Army and an adviser to Delhi Police on cybercrimes.
"Punishment in such cases is a maximum of three years and those in a poverty-stricken area may not be deterred by that if they can bring some money to the table. There are only two ways to deal with this issue. First, engage youths in jobs and job-related activities. And second, police should be trained to understand the psyche of cybercriminals to catch them," he added.
The latest wave of cybercrimes that appears to be targeting people in Delhi-NCR is work from home frauds, for instance those that involve rating movies online. The scammers draw people in by giving initial returns to earn their trust, and then making their big strike.
"Cybercriminals ask their targets to invest a small amount like Rs 100, and they return around Rs 190 or Rs 200 to gain their trust. Later, they lure innocent people for bigger amounts offering better returns and cheat them," a police officer said.
Data from the Haryana crime branch shows 25,659 cyber complaints were recorded in the state between January 1 and March 30 this year. Of these, almost 30% were filed in Gurgaon and another 14% in Faridabad. "We have registered 531 FIRs. Our teams have arrested 299 cyber criminals and the amount put on hold or recovered is almost Rs 10 crore," said OP Singh, additional director general of police (ADGP- crime), Haryana.