Scam offering money to women in exchange for making them pregnant

Nowadays cyber crimes have become common, but this method of cyber crime is a bit unique.

In early December, Mangesh Kumar (name changed) was looking at Facebook when he came across the video of All India Pregnant Job Service. He decided to learn more about it.

This job seemed absolutely real, money in exchange for impregnating a woman.

Naturally this was a very tempting offer. The 33-year-old man, who used to work as a decorator at wedding ceremonies and earn Rs 15,000 per month, has so far lost Rs 16,000 and they are demanding more money from him.

Mangesh, a resident of Bihar, is not the only person who has become a victim of this scam.

DSP Kalyan Anand, head of the cyber cell in Bihar’s Nawada district, told the BBC that hundreds of people have fallen victim to this widespread fraud, which involves simple men being lured into spending a night in a hotel with childless women and paying huge fees. Are asked to pay money as Rs.

So far his team has arrested eight people. Nine mobile phones and a printer have been seized from them and 18 other people are being searched.

But finding the victims is very complicated.

Kalyan Anand said, “This gang has been active for a year and they have cheated hundreds of people, but probably due to shyness, none of them came forward to complain.”

But the BBC spoke to two victims, one of whom said he had lost Rs 799 but declined to elaborate.

The second person, Mangesh, gathered courage and during several phone calls, he told how he had fallen into the clutches of these thugs.

He told me, “When I clicked on the video, ten minutes later my phone rang. A man said that if I want to register myself for this job, I will have to deposit Rs 799.”

The caller, whom Mangesh called “Sandeep Sir”, told him that he would have to work for a company in Mumbai and once registered, he would be sent information about the woman who wanted to get pregnant.

He offered Mangesh Rs 5 lakh, which is equal to his three years’ salary.

This was to meet the woman in exchange for sex and an additional reward of eight lakh rupees was promised if the woman became pregnant.

Mangesh, the father of two small children, said, “I am a poor man, I am in great need of money, so I believed what he said.”

Over the next few weeks, little by little, more than Rs 16,000 was withdrawn from Mangesh. Rs 2,550 for some court papers, Rs 4,500 for safety deposit and Rs 7,998 for GST.

He showed me all the receipts and fake court papers.

His name was written on a government-looking paper and his photograph was attached to a man in what appeared to be a police uniform.

At the top it was written in bold letters – ‘Baby Birth Agreement’ and at the bottom it was clearly written ‘Pregnancy Verification Form’.

At the bottom of this document was a signature that was similar to the signature of the famous American TV host Oprah Winfrey.

To keep his hopes up, the thugs sent him photographs of seven-eight women and asked him to choose from them.

He told, “He told me that he would book a hotel room in the city where I live and I would meet the women there.”

When Mangesh demanded the promised money, he was sent a receipt. And it was said that Rs 5,12,400 has been deposited in his bank account but it has been stopped now and the payment will be made only after paying income tax of Rs 12,600.

Mangesh says that by then he had lost his entire month’s salary and he said that he would not be able to pay any more money and then demanded his money back.

Mangesh said, “Sandeep sir refused and when I got angry, he said that Rs 5 lakh has been deposited in my account and the Income Tax officials will raid my house and arrest me.”

He told me, “I am a poor labourer, I had lost my month’s salary and did not want to get entangled in any further criminal case. I was so scared that I switched off my phone for 10 days. “I turned it on again a few days ago.”

Mangesh told me that initially he had also considered me to be a member of the fraud gang.

According to DSP Anand, there are educated people behind this scam, some are graduates and they know how mobile phones, laptops and printers work. Whereas on the other hand the victims are from all over the country and have very little education.

Mangesh says that he did not think at all that it could be a trap of fraud because “Sandeep Sir” had sent his identity cards, one of which identified him as an Indian Army soldier.

They were also reassured by seeing the caller’s WhatsApp profile photo, which showed an attractive foreign woman holding a newborn baby in her arms.

He asks, “Tell me, how can you not trust this picture?”

Cyber law expert Pawan Duggal says the problem is that people in India “are generally very trusting and very few people check the information coming on the Internet and are overconfident about their security.” Are.”

However, the method of fraud in Nawada is “absolutely unique”.

According to him, “The fraudsters promised them free money and free sex, which is a very deadly lure. In such situations, prudence is left behind.”

Duggal says that during Covid-19, when mobile and net banking became common practice, the golden age of cyber crime began. They warn that this will last for decades.

As cyber criminals adopt new, creative and increasingly credible methods, India will have to work harder to protect people like Mangesh from such frauds.

Duggal says, “Since people trust the government, it should do large-scale awareness campaigns through radio and TV.”

But the government alone cannot reach 1 billion 40 crore people.

He says, “This is a huge number. And if we rely only on the government, it will take a lot of time and the Indian economy will continue to suffer losses. Therefore, the government will also have to encourage the private sector in this direction.”

However, the fraudsters have not yet accepted defeat in the Mangesh issue.

Last week, while talking on the phone, Mangesh disconnected the phone saying that ‘Madam’ was calling.

Later he told that this was the same woman whom he had been told to meet.

He told that he used to talk to her almost every day.

The woman was now telling Mangesh that “Sandeep Sir” was a real fraudster and had stolen most of the promised Rs 5 lakh and Mangesh could still get Rs 90,000 if he paid Rs 3,000 as GST.

Mangesh told, “I told him that I am broken. I requested him to return my money but he said it was not possible. I wanted him to return at least Rs 10,000.”

I asked him if he still had faith in the thugs.

Mangesh said, “I don’t know at all what to do now. I lost the entire month’s salary and was not able to send money to my family in Bihar. My wife is angry and is not talking to me anymore.”

He is angry that “Sandeep Sir” no longer picks up his calls.

Mangesh says, “Those who cheated me should be punished severely. I work back-breakingly all day for Rs 500. I know I made a huge mistake. But whatever he did to me is very wrong.”

Report BBC HINDI