Back in 2016, Jamtara was a village in Jharkhand, which had never been heard of until it emerged as a hub for phishing scams in India. The riveting tale of young boys from a village posing as bank representatives, calling unsuspecting victims in Mumbai and Delhi to siphon off lakhs in one go with OTPs, also became a Netflix series.
But with the remote hamlet in the spotlight, a new cluster of fake call centres has emerged right in the backyard of the National Capital in Noida.
IT hub becoming cyberfraud hub
In the IT hub of Uttar Pradesh, a fake call centre is unearthed almost every day and the tally has reached 250 in five years.
Young people are hired for little pay, and used for insurance fraud as well as scams involving fake job offers.
After moving from small towns in Jharkhand to a major urban hub of the national capital region, the scamsters have also started targeting foreigners now.
They are also using more sophisticated ploys, such as claims of fixing pop-up viruses in phones, Kaun Banega Crorepati lucky draws, and cheap loans.
Why Noida after Jamtara?
Noida, like Jamtara is preferred for such scams since it is closer to the interstate border and allows fraudsters to jump between jurisdictions.
They stay in another state, work in a different state and commit crimes across various Indian states.
Foreigners are increasingly targeted with on the pretext of verifying their passports, and the loot from such cases can range between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.
