Netflix‘s ‘Jamtara – Sabka Number Ayega’, provides decent binge-able content that not only entertains but also informs that India has a lot to do when it comes to fighting against cybercrime.
The documentary, based on the true-life incidents pictures India’s experience with cybercrimes from a small town in Jharkhand named Jamtara.
After watching Jamtara, the way you picture a hacker – with high tech computers in the vicinity – would change forever. Jamtara is a story of hundreds of teenagers in the village, drained of poverty who stole lakhs from people without even leaving their house.
Jamatra village, also known as the ‘vishing capital of India’, is infamous for its notorious crimes like fake calling to pull off people’s debit card details, bank details and PINs, etc.
The 10 episodes long documentary revisits the real-life characters and recreate crimes that had made Jamtara a frequent destination for the police to visit.
“We got in touch with the cyber cobs and cyber experts, the police team involved there. Police ne ek live demonstration kiya tha. Ek ladke ne unke saamne hi phone karke successfully details procure kare and transferred it to the police’s personal bank account. It was pretty shocking.” – Soumendra Padhi
The art you shouldn’t practice? Exactly.
More importantly, Jamatra aware people about what actually vishing crimes are and how they can easily be trapped and looted for millions if they are not careful about who they are sharing their financial information with.
Story
Like most of the village, Jamatra is another poor village with poor teenage kids with a notorious mind and plan to overcome poverty.
Practically with no hackling skills, how these teenagers pull of phishing with ease is yet another wow, which shouldn’t be promoted.
The story reloves around two characters Pradip Mondal and Pradyuman Mondal, and an SP tasked to grab them red-handed. Surely this was not easy considering the lack of tracking tools the police had at that time. But over the years, police had still managed to nab the accused. A lot of them.
Since 2014, various gangs mastering the art of vishing are active in Jamtara a place between the border of West Bengal and Jharkhand. And over the years, hundreds of sofas, and TVs, cash and of course liquor has been seized by the police from houses of these miscreants.
Krishna Dutt Jha, who was the officer in charge in 2017, disclosed his team seized over 70 LED TVs, three washing machines, 40 ATM cards, 80 bank passbooks, 200 mobile phones and Rs. 9.28 lakh in cash since 2015.
More than 330 residents of the area in Jharkhand have been arrested for their involvement in vishing crimes that still threaten many in the country.
Jamatra today entertains 80% of the overall vishing crimes in India and it is a number too big for a village with teenagers not so great with educational background.
