Screen-sharing, FB ads, WFH: How a gang from Nuh targeted its cyber fraud victims

“That was all the money I had in the account,” she said. It was only after police uninstalled the app from her phone that Rani realised her screen was being shared by fraudsters.

Rani is just one among 28,000 complainants from across the country who have been financially duped by a gang since 2021. Following a tip off that a chain could be working out of villages in Nuh, the gang was busted by Nuh police in an intensive raid on April 28.

As many as 66 accused were arrested from the district in the operation comprising around 5,000 officers of Haryana Police who hit 320 locations in 14 villages in Nuh, unearthing a scam amounting to Rs 100 crore.

The racket used to target its victims in different ways, screen-sharing being one of them.

Nuh Superintendent of Police Varun Singla, in a press conference on May 10, said the accused would lure people with attractive offers posted on Facebook ads or OLX listings, and seek money on the pretext of inflated courier charges.

The goods, mostly motorbikes, cars and mobile phones, were never delivered. Another method was to post advertisements on social media platforms offering work-from-home opportunities, mostly related to the packaging of pencils, and people were duped on the pretext of registration fees, packing material charges and courier fees, police said. In some cases, the accused “honey-trapped” people through profiles on social media, recorded videos and extorted money, said police. In some cases, the accused seemed to have specific targets.

Navdeep, a small-scale businessman from West Delhi’s Ashok Vihar, said that in September 2022, he got a call from a man impersonating branch manager of his bank. “He confirmed my CSP code and my personal information and details of my shop. So, I thought it was a genuine call. He asked me to deposit Rs 9,000 to an account saying he wanted to check if transaction process in my account was working. He promised to credit the amount back to my account immediately. It was a busy day at my shop, and since they seemed to have accurate information, I sent the amount to the account number they gave,” he said. Later, when he received another call seeking more money, Navdeep got suspicious and approached the police.

SP Singla told The Indian Express that the raid, consisting of 102 teams, was a result of a month-long preparation. “We scrutinised around 200 files and prioritised inputs from Nuh. A four-day training was held for the investigating officers. We gathered information on villages and houses that harboured the accused, later zeroing in on 14 villages,” he added.

Police then geotagged suspects and through informers and social media, found photos of the accused. “It was the first time in the country that such an operation with such a level of mobilisation was conducted. A major challenge was to maintain secrecy. Most officers were briefed about the location and areas only hours before the raid,” said the SP. “As we assigned duties, codes were used to denote villages so that no one got to know which villages were under our radar,” Singla added. All the accused belong to the 18-35 age group and come from low-income backgrounds, said Singla.

To raid these villages simultaneously in an hour, police formed 102 teams of 22 personnel each for the main operation while other officers were stationed in different areas to cordon them off.

“This huge force was not anticipated by the accused or the villagers. We struck them at 3 am and took them by surprise. This will have an impact on the psyche of not only the accused, but also those who help them,” Singla added. After the raid, interrogation was carried out. “As many as 60 cyber experts were called in and officials from TSPs/ISPs, banks, National Payments Corporation of India, UPI intermediaries, UIDAI, DoT, social media platforms etc were roped in,” said Singla. The SP said a spurt in cyber crimes was being noticed after Covid, with many who were forced to return to their villages taking to crime.

Police investigation revealed that about 219 private and public sector bank accounts along with 140 UPI accounts were specifically made to carry out large-scale cyber fraud.