Digital marketing racket: Kingpin explains his modus operandi

Hyderabad: Miryala Sandeep, the kingpin behind the racket, explained how they operated. After completing engineering in CSE three years ago he worked for networking firms. Gradually he understood the techniques of digital marketing and how the cheating is done. After finding a source providing SIM cards in bulk, he started SCS Technologies, became an affiliated network agent and also employed four publishers to work for him.

“For each successful campaign (answered call), if the publisher gets Rs 50. My share in it would be Rs 15. I could earn around Rs 15,000 per month, in addition to what the ad agency paid,” Sndeep said.

He procured around 7,000 Vodafone SIM cards from Murali Krishna in the last seven months. Murali and Ravikanth supply SIM cards to Sandeep at Rs 25 a card, while others operate the publicity network. They cheat the digital marketing agency by operating in an incognito window due to which they can use the same email ID or the mobile number for multiple clients. If the network agent knows about this cheating he should either discontinue the publisher or complain to the agency, but he encouraged them by taking a share in the money. Police advised mobile users to be careful when submitting ID proofs in banks or for SIM cards.

"They must cross the ID proof like a cancelled cheque and mention clearly the purpose of the copy and sign it with date to avoid it being misused," Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagawat said.