Agent involved in smuggling Telangana youth to Cambodia’s cyber crime hotbed nabbed

 

Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) arrested a key agent involved in smuggling youth from Telangana to Cambodia for running a fake call centre conning Indians through various financial frauds.

Mohammed Shadab Alam, 30, a resident of Bihar, was arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport on July 10 when he was returning from Dubai. 

The arrest followed a complaint by A. Shiva Prasad’s mother on May 16 against K. Sai Prasad, Mohammed Abid Hussain Ansari and Mohammed Shadab Alam. 

As per the complaint, Shiva was conned into working in the call centre. The agents collected ₹1.40 lakh from him promising a job in the South-East Asian nation. Two of them – K. Sai Prasad from Jagtial and Mohammed Abid Hussain Ansari from Pune were arrested earlier.

The three are a part of gang of agents luring job seekers in India with promises of lucrative overseas employment and collect significant amounts of money under the pretext of processing fee, registration and visa charges. The fraud not only subjects victims to financial exploitation but also severe psychological and physical abuse.

“These candidates are then sent to Cambodia, where they are handed over to Chinese handlers who force them into cyber criminal activities. Any resistance or questioning by the victims is met with physical violence and confinement. After exploiting them for months, the handlers further extort money from the victims by threatening their lives, demanding payment in bitcoins,” TGCSB Director Shikha Goel said.  

The department issued an advisory to thoroughly investigate job offers and research the agents involved before making any payments or travel arrangements, and to seek verification from local authorities or the embassy of the destination country.