RENASCENCE OF JAMTARA GANG: E-SIM PHISHING TECHNIQUE

 

PHISHING: It is the process of deceiving the target or targets with the message, call, e-mail or some other means that is intended to cajole them to provide sensitive information like password, credit/debit card details, or some personal information that can lead the target to suffer some financial losses.

Jamtara, a city in Jharkhand state. This is a city that was responsible for eighty percent of the phishing carried in India but after 2017 onwards the cases got decreased from there. Previously, the young boys of this city used to make fake calls through fake sims being an official of bank and lure the target to provide the details that were required to fraud the money. Jamtara is also known as the “Phishing Capital of India” and it has been involved in cybercrime since 2012. In 2017 some of the masterminds of the gang were caught and after that, the frequency of phishing from Jamtara sunk subsequently.

Of late, again there has been found a case of phishing in Haryana by members of Jamtara gang. This time they came with some new technique that is availing the e-sim of the target and then transferring the money from the victim's account.

E-SIM: It is an embedded sim that can be generated from the sim operator’s site and can be used as a normal sim without changing the physical sim.  For example, I have only one slot for the sim in my device but I want to use more sims in the same device. It is now possible as we can generate the e-sim form the authoritative companies and can be used as a normal sim.

WHAT IS E-SIM TECHNIQUE?

Here, the gang lures the target by describing them about the Know Your Customer (KYC) and also influence them that they required it do their KYC. The callers also assure the target that KYC can be done online, so the target also gets happy and does as the caller insists. During the process, the scammer sends a mail that is linked to authorize the e-sim for the same number being used by the target. As the target clicks the link, e-sim gets issued to the scammers and they transfer the money from the target’s account.