Police from Cyber Cell, South West District, apprehended Amrul Ansari, a 24-year-old from Jamtara, Jharkhand, for perpetrating fraud using phishing tactics. Ansari masqueraded as a customer care agent to deceive victims into transferring money. One such victim, Neelam Gupta from Anand Niketan, Delhi, filed a complaint on March 19, 2024, reporting a loss of Rs. 2 lakh.
She received a fraudulent call regarding a delayed parcel from Indian Post and was instructed to make a Rs. 3 payment via a WhatsApp link. After entering her details, Rs. 1,79,000 and Rs. 21,000 were unlawfully debited from her account, traced to a Canara Bank account in Mumbai.
Investigations pinpointed the origin of the fraud to Jamtara, where technical analysis uncovered multiple SIM cards used on a single device associated with Ansari. Following raids, Ansari was arrested, and four smartphones with SIM cards were seized. He confessed to his role in the crime, having a previous cyber fraud record. Subsequent scrutiny linked two more complaints against him on the MHA Portal.
Earlier, on May 9, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged the Jharkhand government and fintech firms to channel the state’s cyber talent toward ethical hacking. Speaking at the Federation of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce in Ranchi, she underscored the potential of financial regulators and the government in engaging these individuals to combat cyber fraud.
Between 2019 and July 2023, Jharkhand reported 5,350 cybercrime cases, with significant concentrations in Ranchi, Dhanbad, Deoghar, Jamshedpur, and Hazaribagh. Despite a slight decline, the state recorded 967 cybercrime cases in 2022, ranking second highest in the country. Notably, Jamtara, dubbed the “phishing capital of India,” accounted for 2.4% of national cybercrimes.
Responding to these challenges, the Jharkhand Police established a dedicated Cyber Crime Police Station in 2016 to combat severe cyber offenses. Sitharaman also highlighted issues of corruption and inadequate infrastructure hindering Jharkhand’s development and wasting the state’s talented resources.