» » PHISHING - THE STARTING OF MODERN CYBER CRIME IN INDIA (JAMTARA MODULE) PART-1

PHISHING - THE STARTING OF MODERN CYBER CRIME IN INDIA (JAMTARA MODULE) PART-1

PHISHING is defined as an “Attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes indirectly money), often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication”. The term, which originated in the mid-1990, comes from fishing for unsuspecting users. So any mail, text message or link that leads you to disclose a password, log-in details or banking card pins should be treated as suspicious and avoided. It is actually “vishing”, gaining access to private financial information of a person by claiming to be calling on behalf of a bank or financial institution.

Karmatar, a small town, in Jamtara district Jharkhand has slowly emerged as the epicenter of cybercrime in the country.

 Senior police officers reveal that the first cases of online fraud pertained to mobile recharges in 2011. A group of youth who had gone to work outside the district learnt the trick of recharging phones without actually paying and made some quick money.

Sitaram Mandal a young man in Jamtara was the mastermind of cyber crime started in Karmatar village of Jamtara district by using false recharge tricks. He recharge villagers DTH and mobile accounts in exchange for lesser amounts of money. A couple of years later, cases of frauds of money from bank accounts by accessing financial details . For being more accurate in cyber fraud Sitaram requires more peoples, he knows that it is not that simple and cannot be done alone. He require a group, the number of jobless young persons are involved from his village. In the confessional statement before the police, 22-year-old Diwakar Mondal, arrested on March 11, 2017, states that he along with his cousin Mithun Mondal(from group of Sitaram mondal) gathered fake SIM cards and involved in cybercrime .In the statement, Diwakar admits to arranging mobile SIM cards with fake identities and also bank accounts under different names.

DETAILING ABOUT THE MODUS OPERANDI OF JAMTARA MODULE -
Sitaram and his group acquiring vast numbers of SIM cards on fake identities, which they use to fool unsuspecting ATM card owners. They get together in the mornings, split into groups of two or three and sit at the bamboo forest to make calls. Typically the crime involves two people. One who makes a call to an unsuspecting customer seeking details about his bank account, as a bank officials. The second person sits with a Smartphone, all set to click on ‘proceed to make payment’ for items on an e-commerce website. He completes the transaction with the customer’s bank details within moments after his partner secures them. The SIM card is then disconnected and destroyed. In most of the cases bank accounts or e-wallets of a third party is used to make these ''vishing'' transactions and .Almost all e-wallets such as Paytm, Freecharge are being used. One deduction from an ATM card travels to one e-wallet and immediately into five or six other e-wallets, and then finally into a bank current account of villager by offering them some percentage of money, from where it is instantly withdrawn via ATM’s. The police have to follow a long trail to get to the main perpetrator.

Sitaram Mandal was picked up by Delhi Police. Mandal's name was allegedly revealed to hack the account of noted actor Amitabh Bachchan to blow Rs 5 lakhs. A union minister suffered a loss of 1.80 lakhs due to cyber frauds committed from Jamtara itself. Licked 1.60 lakhs from a MP of Kerala. At the same time, a BJP MLA of UP cheated Rs 5000. The strings of all these crimes were also related to Karmatar.


Jaya Roy, the Jamtara Superintendent of Police (SP), says it is actually “vishing”, gaining access to private financial information of a person by claiming to be calling on behalf of a bank or financial institution. She says the tricks which the local youth, mostly school and college dropouts, employ to dupe people are not very complicated. “They call up people posing as bank officials on any pretext, say, linking the Aadhaar number to the bank account, and ask for card details. Sometimes, they even warn not to give the ATM PIN and say ‘we are sending you an OTP from the bank and you have to confirm the OTP number. Unfortunately, even educated people get convinced and get duped”. Due  to the lack of development in this area the youngsters finds cybercrime as an easy way for became rich easily .as their family and and whole village is supporting them. These youngsters are not professional but just ‘script kiddies’, still they took the rate of cyber fraud to alarming stage.
 It difficult to keep a count of the articles seized 70 LED TVs, three washing machines, 40 ATM cards, about 80 bank passbooks, 200 mobile phones and 9.28 lakhs in cash. The charges are mostly the same: Section 419, 420 of the IPC (cheating by impersonation and cheating), 468 and 471 (forgery for cheating and using forged document as genuine), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and Section 66B, 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act.

There are many such type of frauds performed by these peoples such as OTP fraud, credit card scam, lottery scam, gift and coupon scams, and the most recent UPI scams. Only your awareness about phishing and cyber crime can save you and your nearby peoples from these frauds.

AUTHOR:Ravi Agrawal pursuing master’s of forensic science in Govt. Holkar Science College, Indore . He is interested toward Document and Cyber Forensic. He has completed him undergraduate Final year project in Questioned Document which title is "Types of Forgery in Wills" . He has attended 6 International,12 National and many Seminars and  webnairs. He also work as a volunteer on Applied Forensic Science For Justice Student Group with social worker for awareness regarding to cyber crime.

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