14 Haryana villages new hotspots of cyber fraudsters

Gurugram, May 7 (IANS) Fourteen villages in Haryana's Nuh district are emerging as new hotspots of cybercrime, and mostly the youths there are indulging in the crime by using stolen high-end mobile phones.

This was disclosed by the police after questioning 125 cybercriminals, who were apprehended by as many as 102 teams comprising over 5,000 police personnel. The raids were conducted in 300 locations in the 14 villages on April 27.

The police raided the 14 identified villages in the Pinangwa, Punhana, Ferozepur Jhirka, Nai, Aminabad, Tirwara, Jaimat and Bichhore areas.

The police had earlier identified Khedla, Luhinga Khurd, Luhinga Kalan, Gokalpur, Godhola, Aminabad, Mahu, Gulalta, Jaimat, Jakhopur, Nai, Tirwara, Mamlika and Papda as cybercrime hotspots.

The police said the accused cheated people on the name of selling vehicles on OLX, seeking KYC data, offering loans and even sextortion.

Most interestingly, the hackers have studied only up to Class 12, while some are even illiterate and some of them have rewards on their heads.

A senior police officer said earlier illiterate youths, who were involved in vehicle theft, phone snatching, cattle smuggling and other crimes, have shifted to cybercrime in the past two years after being "trained".

During the raid, police nabbed the highest number of 31 cyber criminals from Nai village, followed by 25 from Luhinga Kalan village, 20 each from Jaimat and Jakhopur, 17 each from Khedla and Tirwara, and 11 from Aminabad.

A total of 66 smartphones, 65 fake SIMs, 166 Aadhaar cards, three laptops, 128 ATM cards of different banks, two ATM swipe machines, one AEPS machine, six scanners, five PAN cards, etc., were recovered from the suspects.

Police investigation revealed that most of the youths arrested by the police during the raid were trained in the villages of Jurehera and Ghamdi in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district. The two villages, located on the Haryana-Rajasthan border, have emerged as the 'cybercrime training hubs', said the police.

These two villages offer fake SIM cards and documents which help in opening bank accounts. Most accounts were opened in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The police disclosed that the accused mostly targeted job-seekers, senior citizens and students. They even offer lucrative offers on OLX. They said the accused usually committed crimes at the border areas of Rajasthan and Haryana as it is difficult to track the mobile locations of the criminals.

"We are probing the matter from different angles and will also seek help from adjoining state police to crack down on cybercriminals. We are taking help from cyber experts to help solve cases," said Varun Singla, Superintendent (SP), Nuh.