DailyPost 2917
DIGITAL AMBUSH
The pace at which we are losing out and missing touch of the reality; the physical space, the land, the law, the way the world operates in real terms, the governance, crime, investigation et al, that we are becoming more and more gullible. We are left with no reference points. We don’t feel the need to have anyone’s assistance. There are no experts. The apps and skypes and videos are their world. They seem to be managing it really well, because they have never experienced the real world.
So far so good, but it turns out to be a nightmare, if the criminal wants to exploit this trait of yours. Behavioural lapse you might call it. It started in a big way with what we can now call the Jamtara phenomenon, when rural tricksters took the most intelligent of the lot, from across the country, for a ride. Ace investigators were also ending up in a wild goose chase. Euphemistically, it is known as social engineering. In reality, you are a lame duck to be exploited by criminals and by those who can just do some glib talking. Ignorance knows no bounds, mostly it is on the fringes of foolishness.
Fast forward to 2024, the FedEx, immigration, customs and police video play scam took the center stage. Parcel with illegal stuff getting caught was at the core of the story. People started falling prey, even when they have not sent any parcel. Completely oblivious to the functioning of government agencies, systems and processes they started caving in and paying up. Any amount of media coverage did not make any difference. Victims faith in the criminal as real was going unchallenged till the completion of the crime. Might be when this started failing, a new item of digital arrest was added, and it turned out to be an instant hit.
The epitome of gullibility was that even IT professionals, senior and experienced, fell prey, losing crores of rupees. Indian private professionals have grown in their own bliss, not needing to know anything about the real world. Brokers, service providers and facilitators did all their odd jobs and attended to all interfaces with the government. Now this was different. Might be the success rate of this criminal game went down or the booty tapered, so they added another innovative role play for the foolish and the gullible. I quote, “in a rare cyber fraud case, crooks ‘accused’ a 59 year-old Bengaluru-based executive of money laundering, simulated a ‘courtroom’, conducted a bogus online trial, denied him ‘bail’, passed an adverse ‘order’ and finally fleeced him of Rs. 59 lakhs.” When we make a cinema of life, video comes to bite you. It has already started.
CYBER CROOKS UNDERSTAND THE UNDERBELLY OF INDIA’S EDUCATION /KNOWLEDGE, MATURITY / IGNORANCE AND WIDELY PERVASIVE GULLIBILITY TO THEIR ADVANTAGE.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.