Jamtara-Style Calling Fraud Emerges Again: MP, UP And Rajasthan Hub Of Phishing Attacks

Madhya Pradesh has seen a massive uphill in the number of phishing rackets in the past few years. They are mainly operated from small villages in and around the borders of MP, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Recently, two such cases have come to light.

In one of the complaints lodged by a resident of Ahmedabad; Aniruddhsinh Vaghela, unknown people claiming to be representatives of a supposed Mumbai-based consultancy firm Mehta Equities, defrauded him of Rs 29.09 lakh.

The victim was approached by various people claiming to be representatives of the company. They had promised him higher returns for investment in equities. After doing so, the victim did not receive said returns and went to Mumbai only to find out no such company existed. He filed an FIR for fraud, criminal breach of trust under sections of the Information Technology Act and Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Upon investigation, the cybersecurity team from Ahmedabad found a call centre where they arrested Shalu Goyal; a resident of Indore who manages the accounts. The team detained 31 people and learnt that the main accused is Vinayak Mehta who runs the call centre. Shalu has been arrested and brought to Ahmedabad but the investigation is still ongoing.

Another such instance is the recent bust that took place in the Nirwadi district on the border of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The Sukhi Sevaniya police and cybercrime branch in a joint operation arrested four members of a similarly operating gang.

A 7-month long investigation helped the police unveil this cyber fraud racket. A 17-year-old resident of Sukhi Sevaniya, Mohammed Parvez, had lodged a complaint with the police claiming he was a victim of online fraud and had been looted. Parvez received a call saying he had won an online lottery of Rs 3.90 lakh and had been asked to deposit Rs 38,000 in two different banks. 

When the caller asked for Rs 6,000 more he became suspicious. Once the complaint was lodged, the investigation led them to Nirwadi with the help of the cybercrime experts. The police team of Bhopal arrested Vinod Ahirwar, Arvind Prajapati and Ankit Ahirwar from Gorkhas and Raghvendra Yadav from Astari.

The investigation further revealed that they had made huge sums through online fraud and were found with mobile phones, SIM cards, ATM cards, a micro ATM and a thumb impression machine. They would procure SIM cards from fake documents and got information from neighbouring gangs from UP who ran similar operations.

They also told the police that they had learnt of online fraud about five years ago from the TV and internet with Arvind taking the lead and others joining later. Their victims were not limited to just Madhya Pradesh; a lot of people around the country have fallen victim to their scams.

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