Hyderabad: Investigation officials have found that more than 75 per cent of the cyber crimes reported here were pulled off by gangs in the Jamtara district of Jharkhand; and the rest were done by conmen hiding in Bihar and West Bengal. The gangs are all but invisible. Despite their mobilephone tower location being traced in dozens of cases, only one suspect has been arrested so far from Jamtara. Fraudsters operating from Bihar and West Bengal keep shifting their houses, leading the police on a wild goose chase. The most recent cases of fraud after demonetisation, in which many people lost thousands of rupees after they got calls from conmen pretending to be bank managers, proved that the Jamtara gangs had upgraded their cyber skills to exploit the surge in e-wallet usage.
“The Jamtara cyber crooks have been around for a while. Given the financial chaos in the country, they have hit a jackpot,” said a senior official from the cyber crime wing in the city. The gangs have a signature method. They purchase SIM cards in bulk and use 3G/4G Internet-enabled mobilephones. “The SIM cards are purchased using fake IDs and photographs from promotional events by telecom companies. In order to open e-wallets, these phone numbers and a fake email ID are enough. They use the same SIM cards for calling the victims to extract their bank account details,” said cyber crime inspector Md. Riyazuddin.
Unlike criminals from other cities, most Jamtara racketeers do not operate from rented buildings or offices. “They operate from open fields, parking lots or public places, which makes it difficult to track them down,” said another official. When the scamsters purchase goods online using the looted cash, they give random addresses near their operating area, and collect the goods from the courier offices to avoid leaving any trail. “As soon as they get delivery of the items that they purchase using the victim’s money, they sell them to different shops at a discount, encashing their loot easily,” said the inspector.
Extensive training will have to be given to cops:
With hundreds of people being cheated in online transactions across the state, police officials are stepping into unchartered territory to equip local police to fight cyber scamsters. The task faces several hurdles as for most cops cyber crimes are a new experience. A review by senior officers after a three-day cyber crime training session at the state police headquarters showed that the cops would need hundreds of hours of training.
Many police personnel had to be trained even in basic computer skills. Sources said many who attended the first training session did not even know what an IP address was. “When we talked to cops they expressed their fears about these new investigation methods. Many of them had never been exposed to such things before and it is natural to have inhibitions. We hope to equip them with skills,” said CID IG Dr Saumya Misra, who oversaw the training.
Another hurdle the police faces is lack of equipment. “The government has sanctioned over Rs 9 crore. That will not be sufficient to train personnel and purchase machines,” said a senior officer. Earlier, cyber crime investigation was entrusted to the CID and the two cyber crime police stations in Hyderabad. Gven the large number of new cases, local police will have to tackle them.
offenders.
