Phishing calls: Pakistan fraudster cheats Hyderabad woman

Hyderabad: In the last week of November 2016, Sudhamani, 26, a nurse at the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, received a call from an unknown number.  From the other end, a man spoke in Hindi with a Punjabi accent, “I am Raj Kumar calling from Mumbai Airtel office. Your mobile number has been selected as winner in an Airtel lucky draw.  You have won Rs 50 lakh as prize money.”

Sudhamani got excited. During the 10 minute conversation, little did she know that the man was going to rob Rs 5.4 lakh from her savings. He made Sudhamani deposit money in bank accounts in instalments.

He managed to convince her that she had to pay Income Tax, registration fees, clearance fee and other charges. Soon she started sensing a fraud. Sudhamani went to the police who told her that he was a Pakistani calling from a phone number that starts with +92.

Hundreds of Hyderabadis have been receiving these calls recently. The caller, who speaks fluent Hindi, tells the receiver that he/she won a lottery of Airtel or some other firms.

“The fraud convinces the victim that in order to collect the lottery prize, a certain amount has to be deposited as processing charges in bank accounts. After the amount is deposited, the fraudsters’ agents withdraws the cash,” said K.V.M. Prasad, a cyber crime inspector.

The fraudsters are now using new techniques after Reliance Jio was launched. “Actually, these fraudsters have been active since 2014. But, after Reliance introduced Jio, they are calling people and telling that Airtel introduced the draw to attract customers,” said an official.  Some Hyderabadis who did not pick up the calls, got messages from these phone numbers asking them to call back if they want to claim the ‘prize’.

“I got two calls. The first guy spoke like a Punjabi and said I won Rs 25 lakh. Initially, I believed. Two days later, I got another call from another guy. He said I won '50 lakh. When I did an Internet search, I understood that it was fake,” said T. Mahesh, an employee of an IT firm in Madhapur.

Pakistani fraudsters are well knit, professional
The Pak scam is well organised and are pulled off by professionals. Involvement of the ISI is suspected, but not confirmed. In the cases detected so far, TS police could not arrest any Pakistani. The police could arrest only their Indian handlers.

The cops say that it is nearly impossible to nab the main suspects, who are in Pakistan. The Pakistani suspects involved in the 2014 cases, which was investigated by CCS, are still absconding

As per the information gathered by CCS, who detected one case recently by arresting an Indian handler, the Pakistani callers are operating from call centers after accessing phone numbers from an Internet data base.  

The police could not collect the identity details and location of the suspects, as the Pakistani mobile service provider would not reveal details. In the recent case, CCS cops got two names of the pak nationals after grilling the Indian handler. But they are not even sure if they have got those names correct.

“One middle man, who knows a lot of about the Pakistanis, is still absconding. His arrest might help us get more details,” said a probe official. Cops say they may try to get a redcornor notice issued. But, arresting them will not be easy.