HYDERABAD: Next time you receive a call from an unknown number posing as a bank official and asking for details for renewal of KYC, all you have to do is pose them the question of whether they are a resident of Jamtara district of Jharkhand State. It is then likely that the caller would promptly hang up. This would happen because a majority of cyber fraudsters duping people in Telangana are from Jamtara.
With many criminals, a lot of them youngsters, committing cybercrimes from the Jharkhand district, senior police officials from Telangana have decided to write to the Jharkhand Police to take constructive measures to prevent the district’s residents from committing the frauds.
A senior officer said when police teams visited Jamtara as part of an investigation, their counterparts in Jharkhand informed them that at least 25 police teams from various States had visited Jamtara for the same purpose.
The criminals appear to have taken a preference to Telangana, with nine out of ten cybercrimes in the State being traced to Jamtara, as per the police. On Saturday itself, Manoj Das of Jamtara was arrested by the Hyderabad Cybercrime Police. Das would commit KYC fraud wherein he would first collect details of victims’ bank accounts and debit cards, and then withdraw cash from the account without knowledge of the customer. At least ?95,000 cash was siphoned off from one customer’s account by Das.
During questioning, the accused told the police that committing cyber frauds was very common in Jamtara. The reason for this, the accused said, is Jamtara’s location, as it is located near the borders of three States - Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. As a result, the locations of phone numbers used by the accused cannot be accurately traced by the cops.
200 youths from town held per month
At least 200 youngsters from the Jamtara in Jharkhan are arrested every month in as many as 21 States in the country, mostly for committing cyber offences. The town’s notoriety has also spawned a web series titled ‘Jamtara - Sabka Number Ayega,’