Assam: Police crackdown on a syndicate-run cyber frauds in Morigaon

According to a senior police officer, who asked not to be named, a few of the youth who returned had lived in certain areas of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh where the police busted cybercrime hubs; during their stay in those states, the youth from Morigaon picked up tricks of the online fraud trade.

Investigation into Morigaon’s links to online frauds started in early 2023 when police found – after tracking the crimes – that many cases were linked to the district.

"Over 20 cases were registered in Assam itself, cases were also registered in different parts of the country. In all the cases, cyber security experts of the police department found that the fraudulent activities were being operated from Morigaon's Moirabari Laharighat and Bhuragaon areas," the investigating police officer quoted above said.

The distance between Moirabari and Bhuragaon is around 21 kilometres, and Laharighat is located at a distance of around 10 kilometres from both locations. Police said that the youth were operating from small shops, rooftops and neighbourhood computer centres.

Modus operandi

A farmer from Morigaon's Laharighat (on the condition of anonymity) said that he had applied for a bank loan in 2021, which was not approved. In 2023 when he again tried for a loan, the bank said that his Cibil Score — a summary of an individual’s credit history — was low because he didn't repay some amounts. "They said, I took small loans multiple times but I had no idea about those loans," he said.

Similarly, a businessman from Moirabari said that he received a call from a bank one day and was told that there were over 20 loans by his name. "I immediately called the police and they registered a case of cyber fraud. The officials said fake documents were used," he said.

According to the additional superintendent of police (crime), Morigaon district, Samiran Baishya, the fraudsters collected details of an individual’s Aadhar, PAN and bank accounts from various online applications.

"They used multiple ways to carry out fraudulent activities. What was common was forging documents to open bank accounts. Over 1000 such accounts were opened, mostly in the private banks," Baishya said. Loans were also issued from private finance companies.

"Most of these companies are operating from Mumbai and other cities. They compete among themselves and sometimes issue loans easily on the basis of documents without physical verification. The fraudsters used this as an opportunity," he said.

The amount of loans these fraudsters asked for between ₹10,000 and ₹2,00,000. "Though the amount of each loan was small, the number of loans was large and the total amount crossed ₹15 crore in the last few years," Baishya added.

The process of forging documents

The youth involved in these crimes were well-trained and created a syndicate across the Morigaon district and involved people with relevant skills in their team.

They created forged PAN cards by using editing applications like PAN Creator, which can be found on the Google PlayStore, police said.

"Their first step was to collect authentic Aadhar cards and PAN cards from different sources. Next was to mix the details with each other. They created the PAN card number of one person with the name of another person and a picture of someone else," Baishya said.

After creating fake PAN cards, they would create Aadhar cards with the help of local youth allegedly working for the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency which issues the identification cards. After creating these documents, they opened accounts in private banks and finance companies.

Members of the syndicate would arrange mobile SIM cards using the forged documents. After linking the mobile numbers with the bank accounts, they would start calling the banks and finance companies for loans.

They were provided loans without physical verification because that’s a commonly followed practice for private finance companies. Once the loan was extracted, the gang members would destroy the SIM card, leaving no trace because the address and identity of the beneficiary were fake.

Police investigation

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) (Law and Order) Assam, Prasanta Kumar Bhuiyan said that after receiving multiple complaints, they created a special team to investigate the matter. Young officers with technological knowledge were included in the team.

"The cybercriminals are young and tech-savvy. We needed to create police teams with personnel who were equally tech-savvy and who could outsmart the criminals. By using geo-tracking technology, we found that almost all the accounts were created in Morigaon,” he said.

The team studied the psychology of cybercriminals and attempted to predict their plans, in an effort to stay a step ahead of them. “We tried to understand them, their psychology, background and the style of operations,” he said.

"They (the suspects) were inspired by cybercriminals from other states.

After understanding their psychology, we started tracking them and looked at each case separately to find where it started. We tracked all the points, from their source of creating fake documents, to getting loans, to destroying the evidence. This wasn't easy, it took time and effort," Bhuyian said.

Subsequently, multiple raids were carried out in the district from 2023 and until May this year: Over 200 suspects have been taken into custody.

Police have seized 7688 fake sim cards, over 250 PAN cards, over 100 voter ID cards, 175 mobile phones, around 20 laptops, 300 ATM cards, around 200 chequebooks and a large number of bank passbooks.

The total amount of loans the fraudsters acquired in the last one and half years is ₹15,92,84,129. Police recovered cash of ₹44,51,20. Banks returned ₹19,00,000 to finance companies and froze ₹23,28,356 in different accounts, the police said.

The IGP said that though some cybercriminals were arrested in other parts of the state including Guwahati, but Morigaon was the hub and most major operations were carried out from the district.

" We had earlier sent a team to Jharkhand's Jamtara after Assam residents faced cyber fraud but we didn't find anyone there (to be involved) and from that point, we started closely studying this matter. The Morigaon case has similarities with (cyber fraud cases in) Jamtara," he said.

Bhuiyan said that Assam police is strengthening itself to combat cybercrime and seminars and training programmes have been organised for the force. Also, special cybercrime branches have been created.

According to him, public awareness could help prevent these crimes. "The victims report to us much (later) after the incidents. We keep telling people to stay away from clicking on unknown links but some people ignore these warnings," he added.

Future risks

According to the police, cybercriminals are known to change the way they operate. After the loan sector, they are now targeting credit cards and pension funds.

"The digital credit card is the next big target for cybercriminals. Also, they are targeting senior citizens with pension accounts in banks. We would appeal to the common people to stay away from any unauthorised calls or links," police said.

Police said the representatives from major finance companies came to Assam following these cases and they have made physical verification mandatory before sanctioning loans.