Online scammers find a fertile market in India as the internet spreads

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Cyber crimes like phishing and password fraud are surging in India. “I am struggling to pay my monthly installments,” one victim told parthpunter. “The money I lost in the scam was my home loan. I feel like I let my family down.”

targeting victims in far richer nations such as the United States. Last year, federal prosecutors in Georgia announced the indictment of multiple India-based call centers and their directors, charging them with conspiring to forward tens of millions of scam calls to American consumers.allegedly scared their victims and stole their money, including some victims’ entire life savings,” then-U.S. Atty. Kurt Erskine of the Northern District of Georgia said at the time.

In turn, cybercrimes such as phishing, password fraud, persuading victims to download screen-monitoring apps, or setting up fake UPI links and QR codes are witnessing a surge. Though cybercrime is still far more common in the United States, which reported online fraud worth $3.3 billion in 2020 alone, its rise is all the more surprising in a country where 90% of the population earns less than $300 per month.

Rahim grew convinced of the message’s authenticity in part because it contained a neatly designed poster of the game show. The message was followed by a phone call. If he wanted to move forward with the offer, the person on the other end said, he would have to deposit money for taxes.Over three months, scammers used an effective combination of threats and enticements to persuade Rahim to fork over $35,000, fully depleting his bank account.

Gaikwad then tracked down four men who he believes processed the money aggregated in Bihar. The men, aged 22 to 28, were from West Champaran, another district of Bihar. One of them, with a master’s degree in technology, handled 150 bank accounts by himself, authorities said. These four were also arrested, have been charged and are in jail.“Even a supposedly minor scam can wreck the stability of a family,” he said. “We are trying to educate people about online frauds.

From Bihar it went through several different bank accounts, eventually stopping at a trader in Surat — 1,300 miles west in the state of Gujarat. The trader had received $1.5 million from various accounts handled by the four men from West Champaran.

 

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What goes around, comes around.

Garcetti will fix this.

Death penalty across the globe for these crimes

parthpunter They may want to start by going into one of many scam centers that are all over their city.

parthpunter

parthpunter Maybe the Indian govt will start cracking down on the scammers now that they are targeting other Indians.

Some 47% of the population now has internet access, up from 15% eight years ago. With this rapid expansion of the Internet has come an increase in cyber crime.

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