Well-known cyber crime expert and author Amit Dubey is associated with the Indian police and investigation agencies and provides his services to them. Amit Dubey is a software engineer educated from IIT Kharagpur. Amit Dubey’s ‘Return of the Trojan Horse: Tales of Criminal Investigation’ was the first book based on true incidents of cyber crime, which has been very popular. Amit also conducts a radio program called ‘Hidden Files’, in which he narrates interesting stories of cyber crime based on true incidents and his own experiences. A collection of true stories of cyber crime based on Amit Dubey’s ‘Hidden Files’ has been published by ‘Unbound Script’ under the name ‘Adrishya Jaal’. IPS officer Prof. Triveni Singh has also played an important role in writing this book.
There are many stories related to cyber fraud in ‘Advisya Jaal’. One such story is in which ordering burgers online proved to be very expensive for a woman. Two burgers worth Rs 470 cost her Rs 40,000. Here is the story 40,000 Burger ,
Sushmita works in a media house and is a resident of Nagpur.
“I am bored of eating homemade food… let’s eat something outside today.” Sushmita told her husband Kishore.
“Oh, but the restaurants are not open yet.” Kishore replied. “They are open, home delivery is happening.” Sushmita said while looking at something on Facebook- “I will order something nice right now.”
Sushmita started looking for food joints to order online. She opened an online food ordering app and started checking the menu options.
“Ok… would you like to have a burger?” he asked the boy.
“Okay. Order French fries too.” Kishore’s mouth started watering too.
“Okay, here it is. The order will arrive in 30-40 minutes. Only Rs 470 and here is our wonderful treat.”
She was happy that today she would get to eat something new. Both of them sat down and started watching TV. After about 30 minutes, Kishore reminded Sushmita, “Hey, what happened to your burger… it should have arrived by now!”
“Yes! Now the thought of the burger has made my stomach feel even more hungry… it should have arrived by now. I’ll check.” Sushmita again got lost in the mobile app.
“Hey! There’s no status change coming… maybe it’s on the way!”
“It would have been better if we had cooked something at home.” Kishore said making a face.
“Can’t you wait even a little?” Sushmita rolled her eyes.
After a while Sushmita checked the status again. “Oh, what is this, our order has been cancelled!” Sushmita said in shock.
“Take this! I knew that in this lockdown no one is going to deliver food home… I will make something myself.” Kishore got up and headed towards the kitchen. Sushmita was still busy with her mobile.
“The order was cancelled but why was my money not returned?”
“They will come… sometimes it takes some time.” Kishore called from the kitchen.
It was evening and when the money was not returned, Sushmita searched for the customer care number of that popular restaurant chain on Google. She got the customer care number in the first link itself.
“Hello, XYZ Restaurant?” Sushmita asked.
“Hello, this is Raj Yadav… Tell us how we can help you?” the customer care agent replied.
“I ordered two burgers from your restaurant chain this morning… the order got cancelled but I haven’t received my money yet!” Sushmita complained.
“No issues ma’am! There must have been some problem in our system… please tell me your account details, I will revert your payment.”
“Yes, please write it down… account number..”
And then, in order to get her Rs 400 back, Sushmita went on telling everything to the customer care agent.
“Madam, you must have received a verification code, please tell me that… after this the money will be returned to your account.” said the customer care agent.
As soon as Sushmita gave the verification code, she received an SMS – “Your account has been debited with Rs 40,000.”
“What is this? Who took the money out of my account?” She was shocked.
“Kishore, have you transferred the money?” She ran towards the bedroom.
“Why would I withdraw money?” Kishore also said in surprise.
“Something is wrong!” Sushmita quickly saw the message of the verification code.
“Hey! This was the bank’s OTP… I did not pay attention!… So that customer care person has withdrawn our money! “
Sushmita tried to call that number again but that number was no longer getting picked up.
“Wait, I will call Ashutosh.” Ashutosh is Kishore’s friend who knows me.
Ashutosh said to Kishore- “You give the details to Amit also, I will send the number”
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On Ashutosh’s request, Kishore’s call reached me. I took all the details from Kishore like on which website Sushmita got this customer care number, what is the transaction ID so that we can find out where the money was transferred, etc. I was still working on this case when I got a call from the cyber cell saying “Sir, these fraudsters have invented a new technique… four such cases have come since morning.”
“What did you do now?” I asked my friend Amjad.
Hey Sir, this is Uber taxi, right… Just now a doctor got a call that he was speaking from Uber’s call center. He said that in honor of what doctors are doing in this pandemic, you people are being given a 50% discount on using our cab. This discount will be valid for one year. He said that he is sending a link and to get this discount, the doctor will have to give all the information asked in that link. After that this discount code will be linked to his app and the discount will be available for a year. The doctor filled all those details on the given link. After some time, the call center called again saying that Sir, you must have received a verification code, please tell me so that I can link your discount to the app. The doctor told the code that he had received on SMS and then Rs 55,000 was withdrawn from his account.
The modus operandi was quite similar – the criminal once posed as a call centre executive of a restaurant chain and another time as a cab company. Both cases were reported on the same day.
“Once we enter these two mobile numbers in the cyber cells group across the country, ask whether any such complaints have been received from anywhere else in the last two-three days?”
In a short while, about eight people in the group replied that crimes were committed in about 5 states using these numbers in the name of offering different services. Someone got a burger worth Rs 40,000, someone got a taxi worth Rs 60,000. Someone got looted in the lottery on WhatsApp, while someone lost his own money in the hope of winning a prize from ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’. Using these few numbers, they were committing crimes in different states. The last location of all the numbers was found out and so was their CDR, which made it clear that this was the same gang… Now all that was needed was to catch their one mistake.
“Let’s trap him in his own game, sir! If he can get the victim linked by luring him, then we should also do something!”
We called a number that was active – “Hello, this is Dr. Sridhar… I had placed an order and it got cancelled but the refund did not come.”
“No issues sir! I am Deepak Sharma… Please give me your bank account details, I will get the refund done right away.
“Oh so nice of you! Write and then I gave him some wrong account details…”
“Dr. Sridhar, you may have received a code.”
“No, the code did not come.”
“He will come in some time.”
Meanwhile, I checked the number and it was from Odisha.
“Did you get the code yet?”
“No brother, no code has come.” I told him looking a little needy. “Listen friend, I am in the hospital right now and can we talk in two-three hours for the refund?” I wanted to take some time from him and give the police time to reach him.
“No issue sir, I will call you in two-three hours.”
The call came after an hour but it was not from Deepak. “Dr. Sridhar Sir, I am Rajan from Uber Taxi… In this pandemic, the company is offering a 50% discount considering your services. You will be able to get this discount on every booking for a year.”
It was clear from this call that both these gangs belonged to the same group. This was a good opportunity… I immediately replied – “50% discount!.. But I saw an ad on Facebook, so they are giving 60% discount.”
“Maybe sir… I will check.” The caller was probably not expecting such a response. He was not prepared. And I continued speaking- “Look, I am sending you this link where 60% discount is being talked about… check it, then tell me.” I disconnected the call and immediately created a location tracking link and WhatsApped it to Rajan. Now it was to be seen whether Rajan clicks the link or calls without clicking the link. His call came within 3-4 minutes- he had not clicked the link.
“Sir, you were right… the company has increased the discount to 60% in certain areas. You fill in the details, I will make the discount available.”
“Look, I am in the hospital… I don’t have time to fill in the details. I have put all my details on a Google Doc link… I will send you the link… you can get the details from there and if something is missing, ask me.”
After disconnecting the call, I sent a new link to Rajan. This link had my fake details but no CVV number. This time Rajan was probably desperate and he clicked on the link. I got his exact location, his browser details and a different login ID. All this was enough to reach him. The nearest police station was alerted to catch him. But Rajan called again in 10 minutes – “Sir, there must be a three digit number on the back of your card, it is missing. Give it to me and I will confirm your discount.”
“Hey yaar, I am in an emergency right now… starting an operation and I am not carrying my wallet. Please call me in 3 hours.” I asked him for some time. These three hours were enough to reach him. Rajan was caught and along with him his other gang members too.
Tags: Cyber Crime, Cyber Fraud, Hindi Literature, New Books, Online Shopping
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 25, 2024, 11:49 IST