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Easy moolah, WFH set-up drive youth to cyber crime: Experts
After working out cyber fraud cases, police reveal that most of the accused are degree holders in IT who yearn to earn quick money for a luxurious lifestyle
LUCKNOW When we imagine cyber cons, shady figures working in the shadows may come to mind. But in reality, most of them are youngsters, first-time offenders, holding degrees in IT/AI, and not weapons, who are lured into making easy money by exploiting digital vulnerabilities and unsuspecting victims, reveal recent crackdowns by state law enforcement agencies on cyber frauds.
In wake of the findings, Lucknow police commissioner Amrendra K Sengar gave a briefing on a recent cyber fraud case after the arrest of 16 ccused, mostly youngsters, who were operating from a highrise apartment in Jankipuram. The police seized 1.77 crore from them.
Cases like these reveal how youth are lured into the con world for easy money.
“I was earning ₹20,000 a month working as a software support executive. One of my friends told me I could make that much money in a day by handling tech operations for a call centre. I didn’t ask too many questions at first....just thought about the moolah,” said a cyber crime accused, a B.Tech in computer science, revealing why he chose the darker route.
Another youth, who helped build phishing websites to mimic legitimate portals, justified his role by saying: “People don’t understand how hard it is to find a decent job, even with a degree. When you see others making lakhs sitting at home, you get tempted. Everyone thinks they’ll do it just for a few months and quit, but it never stops. People get trapped in this vicious circle after entering once.”
Both individuals admitted they were aware that the operations were illegal, but said the lack of quick, good income options pushed them to continue. “It wasn’t like we were mugging people on the street. We thought of it as a grey zone, not a crime,” said one of them.
HT spoke to cyber experts and officers investigating cyber crime cases to understand what drives these techies towards fraud.
According to experts, a major driving force is the gap between technical qualification and available legitimate job opportunities.
“Most of the arrested cyber fraud accused are youngsters and first-time offenders. They fall into the trap to earn quick money and are driven by contract dealers who hire them and use mule bank accounts to commit frauds. Many of these youths are sometimes aware that the jobs or platforms they’re working for are involved in scams,” said Rallapalli Vasanth Kumar, additional DCP (crime/cyber crime, Lucknow).
Brijesh Yadav, inspector in-charge of cyber crime police station, Lucknow, who investigated several cyber fraud cases. said:”When we interrogate the accused, we find that the appeal of work from home set-ups, high pay and no accountability overshadow their moral compass. Most of them have the capability, but not the right guidance or opportunity. When presented with a fast-track route to financial freedom, even if illegal, they take it.”
The officer referred to a sensational ₹120-crore fraud case with Dr Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU) where the prime accused Anurag Srivastava, aged under 25, posed as an AKTU official when communicating with the Union Bank to invest varsity funds as fixed deposits. He also masqueraded as the branch manager of the bank (Vidhan Sabha Marg branch) while talking to AKTU officials to convince them to invest money in FDs.
A resident of Harraiya in Basti, Srivastava, with the help of his accomplices, managed to get AKTU funds transferred from its Jankipuram branch to the Vidhan Sabha Marg branch and then to the bank account of a Gujarat-based NGO. However, the fraud was detected, and the Lucknow police succeeded in getting the NGO’s bank account frozen and the money refunded to AKTU’s account.
