A few weeks ago, while investigating two cases lodged at a police station in Ghatkopar along the eastern suburbs, the Mumbai Police’s cyber sleuths traced the suspects online to a location that had not popped up on their radar before — Ernakulam in Kerala.
One of these cases involved a gift card scam in which the complainant lost Rs 7 lakh. In the other, the complainant lost Rs 11 lakh on a fake website for investment in gold. Both the cases were lodged separately at the Pant Nagar police station. Taken together, they formed the latest dot on a cyber crime cluster map of sorts that the city’s police have been piecing together.
Investigators told The Indian Express that until the two new cases, they had traced a chunk of cyber frauds operating in Mumbai to states such as Jharkhand, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Bihar, and specific locations like Noida in the National Capital Region. They now suspect that locations in Kerala could be turning into a hub of “investment scams”.
“There are groups in certain parts of the country that become adept at particular types of cons. They then stick to these cons, and the area becomes a hub,” said Hemraj Rajput, DCP (Cyber), Mumbai Police.
According to police data, scams operated through fake loan apps led to 92 cases being registered this year till August-end. The DCP said that investigators have traced “a majority of these cases” to Asansol in West Bengal and Motihari in Bihar.
“West Bengal is also the place where…
