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Hub of Facebook crime: UP towns becoming new Jamtara
Azamgarh: Cyber crime has become a cottage industry in small towns of Uttar Pradesh. A large number of youths are engaged in illegal activities like hacking social media pages and demanding or extorting money.
Hub of Facebook crime: UP towns becoming new Jamtara
The revelation was made after the Azamgarh Police arrested a man from Mathura who was engaged in hacking Facebook account and demanding money from victim’s friends on the platform to deposit money in a Paytm account. In Azamgarh alone, over 70 people including over a dozen cops became victims of the gang.“The situation is alarming as Facebook users are not too serious about two-factor verification or setting a stringent password. Hackers with the help of the leaked database is simply using 10 digit mobile number as login id and password and roughly out of 10-15 attempts they get success in one or two cases,” said Superintendent of Police, Triveni Singh. Singh explained that after getting access to the account hackers start playing with emotions of people added in their friend list. They send distress messages to everyone in the friend list saying that they are stuck t a place where they can’t talk but need their help. They will demand a nominal amount of Rs 3,000-20,000 for help. Usually, these hackers convince the victim’s friend to deposit the money in Paytm account which is opened using fake documents.
UP police investigation has revealed a scary picture as these crimes are not happening in high-tech cities or metros but smaller cities have emerged on the crime map. A large number of young people have engaged in Facebook-related crime.
“We are closely monitoring the web of this crime. Soon raids will be conducted in several locations to crack the network. I would also request users to keep a stringent password,” Singh said.
UP town are becoming new Jamtara, which is in the news currently because of a Netflix film about digital frauds emanating from the area.