The new shocking incident exposes the prevalence of scams enabled by technology in a world where scams are rampant. A 21-year-old Ahmedabad boy duped around 25000 people from 40 countries this time. This fraud amounts to a whopping 5Crore. His targeted countries include the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Australia, and Ghana.
A boy from humble beginnings
Harshwardhan Parmar’s accuser comes from a humble background, where his father is a daily wage laborer, and his mother is a midwife in a municipal hospital. Ahmedabad’s Isanpur region is home to the family. The boy’s education qualifications include only 12th grade. As soon as he learned how to earn money quickly, he began to live a lavish lifestyle. He seems to have drawn the attention of law enforcement agencies because of his luxury lifestyle and some naiveté.
A very sophisticated network was unearthed.
Harshwardhan came in contact with Pakistani Citizen Zia Mustafa, who was his guru in the card fraud. He also used to get the help of Russian Hackers for getting details of the credit and debit card details of foreign nationals.
As quoted by Times of India, a senior officer investigating the case said, “The accused paid Russian hackers anywhere between $10 to $100 depending on the amount in the cardholder’s account and in which country the bank was situated.
The team primarily targeted the nationals from countries where no OTP is sent for verification of online transactions. Card details, once received, were being used for online shopping. The goods, when delivered, were being exchanged for cash at the local level. Within 100 days, Parmar seems to have robbed 25000 foreign nationals across 40 countries.
Cyber Cell of Ahmedabad was recently warranted about someone bypassing the traditional internet services to access the dark web, through which the shenanigans were being orchestrated. The Police laid the trap and snatched Parmar when he ordered 30 refrigerators near his house.
Harshwardhan Parmar’s story shows the dark side of the Web. It also alerts us to the safety of our online monetary transactions. Our readers are encouraged to learn more about online safety measures