Jamtara: 14 held for duping hundreds of lactating mothers and pregnant women

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Tuesday said that they had arrested 14 members of a cybercrime syndicate operating out of Jamtara in Jharkhand — that was targeting hundreds of lactating mothers and pregnant women by duping them under the pretext of reaching out to them for the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY).

"Apart from duping pregnant women, they cheated thousands of people to the tune of several crores of rupees through different modus operandi," the police have said.

Investigators found that women from Jharkhand, Bihar and other States were trapped under the pretext of fake government schemes. "These fraudsters cheated these women by sending fake messages that they will get Rs 5,000 if they apply for the government scheme (PMMVY). They sent a link in the message and after the victim clicked on the link, their money got debited," one senior official said.

Explaining the modus operandi, DCP CyPAD, Anyesh Roy, significantly said that the fraudsters would first dupe Anganwadi workers by posing as officials of the Health Ministry on the phone. They would then trick the Anganwadi workers to share details of lactating mothers and pregnant women in their areas and then they would proceed to cheat potential beneficiaries.

DCP Roy said they nabbed one Altaf Ansari (one of the main culprits) after a 100 km high-speed chase across three districts in Jharkhand. They later nabbed their technical expert one, Ghulam Ansari. On their instance, they went ahead and arrested the other accused from the Jamtara-Deoghar-Giridih-Jamui belt of Jharkhand and Ghaziabad.

Many of them would also often pose as bank officials and ask their targets to download remote access applications. Their sophistication is further elaborated in the way they created counterfeit websites and then used Google Ads campaigns to push these sites to their potential targets. Eventually, they would convince the target to download malware disguised as a mobile banking application.

Ghulam, a school drop-out, used to work as a construction worker in Hyderabad, installing glass panes on windows. When he returned to his village nearly two years ago, he associated with cybercriminals, who taught him the tricks of the trade, after which he gained expertise in designing counterfeit websites and online ad campaigns. He learned fast, the police said, adding the gang had come to refer to him as 'Masterji'.

Altaf alias Rockstar, a first-year BA student, is believed to be so skilled in conning people that 'aspiring cybercriminals' often came to learn from him.

In less than two years, Altaf alone has managed to dupe people from across the country of around Rs 10 crore. From this cheated money, he has built a huge mansion in his native village (worth around Rs 2 crore), has another bungalow under construction, and has purchased a brand-new Scorpio Car — worth around Rs 20 lakh, the police said.

Over the last two years or so, the accused have been receiving, making calls to 40-50 persons per day, of which three-four fall prey to their ruse every day.