Author-Sukhpreet Sodhi
You must have seen hashtags like #save_mewat, read news headlines stating Mewat to become the upcoming hub
of phishing in India. What is Mewat and why is it trending? What
is phishing and why is it getting such limelight?
We will discuss the entire scenario of Mewat in this ARTICLE.
Mewat or Nuh is a district in Haryana. It is surrounded by
Haryana , Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.Set on the foothills of
Aravali mountain range, Mewat is a muslim populated area with
79.20% of its total population being muslim.
We all are familiar with the famous JAMTARA series of Netflix that
was inspired by Jharkhand’s JAMTARA- one of the most notorious
hotspots of digital frauds and cybercrime of India. Mewat has
even surpassed JAMTARA in terms of online frauds and phishing.
People of Mewat are mostly truck drivers. Now the question is
how did a village of truck drivers become a home of
cybercriminals. The answer is “covid” and “greed”.
Although Mewat has a history of being associated with crimes
since late 90s, the drastic turn from TATLU BAAZI to PHISHING
took place during the covid wave. Many people lost their jobs and
started involving in illegal acts to run their homes.
Mewat has a very low literacy and high poverty rate. According to
the NITI AAYOG’S 2018 RANKINGS- Mewat was India’s most
backward district. With no legitimate source of income the locals
of this district started relying on illegal acts to make their ends
meet.
BUT how can an illiterate population be capable of doing
such an advanced type of cyber frauds?
Unlike Kolkata’s highly organized phishing sector which has well
developed buildings and technological gadgets or JHARKHAND’s
JANTARA , Mewat has a very unorganized industry of scamming.
These Scammers buy bulk of sims from far away states to make
traceability difficult and make calls from non-descript highways or
nearby forest areas.The scammers get their training from jailed
exports. They only learn 3-4 lines in English and easily switch to
their prefered language after earning the trust of the victims.
Let’s understand the MODUS OPERANDI of these cybercriminals
in depth.
SEXTORTION – The most common way through which scammers
trap their victim is by luring them through sending obscene links
or photographs or videos and then blackmailing them by sending
the edited or morphed videos. The fraudster first video calls the
victim,shows him/her an obscene video and then records it to
blackmail him/her further. The Rajasthan police recently caught a
20 year old truck driver WAHID with two phones. One had “sex
chats” and screenshots of money transactions while the other
mobile contained the pictures of PhonePe or GooglePay
transactions. If the victim blocks or ignores their calls they use
another SIM and at last they impersonate a policeman or an army
man to threaten and get money.
Who thought that a simple “hi” followed by a video call can be so
disastrous?
The next method is by using online selling platforms-
These scammers use OLX platform to make their targets met.
They advertise costly items for sale at cheaper prices on
ecommerce platforms like olx by impersonating the identity of
someone and fabricating an emotional backstory.They even share
their photographs in army uniforms thereby gaining the
confidence of people and then ask the victim to scan the QR code.
As per sources 300-400 people are duped on daily basis and each
fraudster earns around Rs 3000 daily.These scammers have even
trapped Harshita Kejriwal, daughter of Delhi’s CM Arvind
Kejriwal,Pragya Thakur of BJP and a Shiv sena MLA.
WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO STOP THIS SCANDAL?
According to the police , Cybercriminals use innovative ways to
change IP addresses so as to avoid being tracked. Haryana police
even claim that residents deliberately dig up roads to prevent the
police from raiding villages. Non reporting of such crimes due to
shame and harassment also provides an opportunity to scammers
to continue their deed without any fear.
STEPS TAKEN BY INDIAN GOVERNMENT
Apart from going to the nearest police station,the National Cyber
Crime Reporting portal (Helpline Number -1930) helps to register
any complaint about cyber crime, including cyber fraud. Victims
can also file their complaint online on cybercrime.gov.in .
Another initiative to deal with the increasing cases of cybercrimes
and digital fraud, the government has launched the Indian Cyber
Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) It provides a platform to deal
with cybercrimes in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
The main objective of I4C is to create an ecosystem that helps in
prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of
cybercrimes.
HOW CAN YOU AVOID CYBER FRAUDS THESE DAYS?
● Avoid using common passwords.
● Enable two-factor authentication.
● Be cautious of spam and fraud emails and messages.
● Only use secure websites and connections
● Avoid public Wi-Fi for sensitive money transactions.
● Always use authentic software along with antivirus.
● In case of any cyberattack contact the concerned authorities
as soon as possible.
CONCLUSION:-
Today we can say that Cyberattacks are directly proportional to
the exponential growth in technology. We cannot escape from
technology. The boom of technology also brings the curse of such
malpractices but it can be easily dealt with when we start
becoming digital literate. We should be aware of the ongoing
frauds and scams happening these days and if anyhow we land
into one, instead of shying away we must approach the concerned
authority.
read news headlines stating Mewat to become the upcoming hub
of phishing in India. What is Mewat and why is it trending? What
is phishing and why is it getting such limelight?
We will discuss the entire scenario of Mewat in this ARTICLE.
Mewat or Nuh is a district in Haryana. It is surrounded by
Haryana , Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.Set on the foothills of
Aravali mountain range, Mewat is a muslim populated area with
79.20% of its total population being muslim.
We all are familiar with the famous JAMTARA series of Netflix that
was inspired by Jharkhand’s JAMTARA- one of the most notorious
hotspots of digital frauds and cybercrime of India. Mewat has
even surpassed JAMTARA in terms of online frauds and phishing.
People of Mewat are mostly truck drivers. Now the question is
how did a village of truck drivers become a home of
cybercriminals. The answer is “covid” and “greed”.
Although Mewat has a history of being associated with crimes
since late 90s, the drastic turn from TATLU BAAZI to PHISHING
took place during the covid wave. Many people lost their jobs and
started involving in illegal acts to run their homes.
Mewat has a very low literacy and high poverty rate. According to
the NITI AAYOG’S 2018 RANKINGS- Mewat was India’s most
backward district. With no legitimate source of income the locals
of this district started relying on illegal acts to make their ends
meet.
BUT how can an illiterate population be capable of doing
such an advanced type of cyber frauds?
Unlike Kolkata’s highly organized phishing sector which has well
developed buildings and technological gadgets or JHARKHAND’s
JANTARA , Mewat has a very unorganized industry of scamming.
These Scammers buy bulk of sims from far away states to make
traceability difficult and make calls from non-descript highways or
nearby forest areas.The scammers get their training from jailed
exports. They only learn 3-4 lines in English and easily switch to
their prefered language after earning the trust of the victims.
Let’s understand the MODUS OPERANDI of these cybercriminals
in depth.
SEXTORTION – The most common way through which scammers
trap their victim is by luring them through sending obscene links
or photographs or videos and then blackmailing them by sending
the edited or morphed videos. The fraudster first video calls the
victim,shows him/her an obscene video and then records it to
blackmail him/her further. The Rajasthan police recently caught a
20 year old truck driver WAHID with two phones. One had “sex
chats” and screenshots of money transactions while the other
mobile contained the pictures of PhonePe or GooglePay
transactions. If the victim blocks or ignores their calls they use
another SIM and at last they impersonate a policeman or an army
man to threaten and get money.
Who thought that a simple “hi” followed by a video call can be so
disastrous?
The next method is by using online selling platforms-
These scammers use OLX platform to make their targets met.
They advertise costly items for sale at cheaper prices on
ecommerce platforms like olx by impersonating the identity of
someone and fabricating an emotional backstory.They even share
their photographs in army uniforms thereby gaining the
confidence of people and then ask the victim to scan the QR code.
As per sources 300-400 people are duped on daily basis and each
fraudster earns around Rs 3000 daily.These scammers have even
trapped Harshita Kejriwal, daughter of Delhi’s CM Arvind
Kejriwal,Pragya Thakur of BJP and a Shiv sena MLA.
WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO STOP THIS SCANDAL?
According to the police , Cybercriminals use innovative ways to
change IP addresses so as to avoid being tracked. Haryana police
even claim that residents deliberately dig up roads to prevent the
police from raiding villages. Non reporting of such crimes due to
shame and harassment also provides an opportunity to scammers
to continue their deed without any fear.
STEPS TAKEN BY INDIAN GOVERNMENT
Apart from going to the nearest police station,the National Cyber
Crime Reporting portal (Helpline Number -1930) helps to register
any complaint about cyber crime, including cyber fraud. Victims
can also file their complaint online on cybercrime.gov.in .
Another initiative to deal with the increasing cases of cybercrimes
and digital fraud, the government has launched the Indian Cyber
Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) It provides a platform to deal
with cybercrimes in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
The main objective of I4C is to create an ecosystem that helps in
prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of
cybercrimes.
HOW CAN YOU AVOID CYBER FRAUDS THESE DAYS?
● Avoid using common passwords.
● Enable two-factor authentication.
● Be cautious of spam and fraud emails and messages.
● Only use secure websites and connections
● Avoid public Wi-Fi for sensitive money transactions.
● Always use authentic software along with antivirus.
● In case of any cyberattack contact the concerned authorities
as soon as possible.
CONCLUSION:-
Today we can say that Cyberattacks are directly proportional to
the exponential growth in technology. We cannot escape from
technology. The boom of technology also brings the curse of such
malpractices but it can be easily dealt with when we start
becoming digital literate. We should be aware of the ongoing
frauds and scams happening these days and if anyhow we land
into one, instead of shying away we must approach the concerned
authority.
