Cyber Phonies

Cyber crime is on the rise. The agencies of the Government are constantly cautioning the public through sms, recorded telephonic messages, You Tube reels and other such readily accessible means to not fall prey to these criminals. Yet, there are incidents of even the educated and the enlightened getting cheated by miscreants.

The thugs bewitch by offering  attractive investments, cheap property deals, free membership in luxury hotels, affordable stays in exotic resorts, lucrative tax benefit plans and the likes. They even dress up like cops and judges, video call innocent people, admonish them for committing imaginary crimes, scare them of dire consequences and extort money as a way out. Needless to say the amount extorted is exorbitant.

One evening I received a call from an unknown number. The caller asked me whether I worked in the Intelligence Bureau (IB). When I answered in the negative he disconnected. Soon after I received a call from my friend. When I shared this odd incident with her she told me it was a fraud call and that I should be careful in future.

A few days later I received a WhatsApp message from an unknown number stating that the messenger knew that I was definitely working in the IB.  This was followed by a phone call. Now the caller adopted a threatening tone as though working in the IB was a very big crime. This time I was also prepared to reply back and asked him what was his problem if I did work there. He quickly put the phone down and never got back again.  But from that day onwards I stopped picking up unknown calls.

However, in doing so sometimes I missed important ones too. So I decided to pick randomly to ensure that I don’t ignore expected callers whose numbers are not saved on my phone.

On one such recent occasion, a boy from a Call Centre, called up to say that I was caught red handed committing a heinous crime of sending wrong messages and pictures from my phone to other women. If I could, I would have happily strangled the boy over  phone. My reply was, accordingly, very much on the offensive. The boy must have been new in the ‘business’. He sounded a bit diffident and on hearing my aggressive reply quickly disconnected.

I sometimes wonder who these people are and what their faces are like on the other end. Are they into these shady jobs because of not being suitably employed or they just want to earn a few quick bucks. The boy seemed to be really working in some busy Call Centre because I could hear other voices (mostly female) in the background. He spoke to me in hushed tones which meant either he was playing a prank or trying his luck. In both the cases it was absolutely unpardonable.

With regard to the earlier call I still can’t figure out what is so criminal about working with the IB. In fact it would have been a dream come true. Moreover, had I actually been part of Intel it would have taken no time to trace the call and take some needful action.