Cyber crimes: Destinies distorted by dark web in Visakhapatnam Premium

Visakhapatnam, the City of Destiny, finds itself in the crosshairs of faceless cybercrime syndicates targeting unsuspecting victims, some of whom have even lost their life savings to e-frauds. As police learn about the cybercrooks’ modus operandi, it is discovered that the city has also been the source of ‘cyber slaves’, the unemployed youth who are lured with fake job offers, trapped by the criminals, and forced to act as pawns in the execution of such crimes

After performing his primary duty as a responsible citizen of the country—casting his vote—Kumar, a senior citizen from Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh, who recently retired from a multi-national company, reaches home on the sunny afternoon of May 13 this year. Exhausted from standing in the voter queue line under the hot sun, he sits on his sofa and takes out his mobile phone to find two missed calls. Unsuspecting, Kumar dials back the missed call, and his life has never been the same.

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A man answered the call, introduced himself as an agent from a courier company, and told Kumar that the courier he had sent to his son studying in the U.S.A. a month ago was held at the Mumbai Airport. “Your courier was found to contain narcotic substances and fake passports. The Mumbai Andheri East police will speak to you shortly,” the man said.

Dumbfounded, Kumar told the ‘agent’ that he had only sent his son’s academic certificates to a U.S. university where he was about to join. Even as Kumar struggled to grasp the situation, the man on the other end of the call read out his Aadhaar number and said the police would talk to him about the narcotics. Kumar, who had lived in Mumbai for some time, knew that the Mumbai Airport came under Andheri East police station limits and didn’t doubt the ‘agent’.

In a short while, to add to his anxiety, Kumar received another call from a person who introduced himself as an Inspector Range officer from Andheri, Mumbai. He told Kumar that a police FIR would be registered against him. Also, he warned Kumar against seeking anyone’s help, including that of his family members, saying that it would lead to more trouble and possible detention of Kumar’s family members. “Though I pleaded with him that I was not involved, he said that since the courier was in my name, I had to face the interrogation by a senior rank officer,” Kumar tells The Hindu.

Kumar was asked to join a Skype call. He did as told but asked the ‘officer’ when the police started conducting interrogations online. He was once again convinced when the fake officer told him that they started online interrogations after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For every hour, they kept checking on me, saw if I was still on the Skype call. I was asked not to talk to anyone or go out. It was a sleepless night. My wife was also in a panic after coming to know about the courier. I informed her that I would be just complaining and everything was going to be alright,” Kumar said.