Netflix
Cybercrime in India is covered in a hit Netflix series called “Jamtara”
In Jamtara, “telephone work” has become much more profitable than cultivating the fields. In recent years, classic fraud schemes have transformed into sophisticated scams with constantly evolving tactics, in a “game of cat and mouse” with the police.
For many Indians, “Jamtara” is no longer just a remote point on the map, in the northeast of the country; it has become a current way of designating the fact that someone has been target of scam.
This rural and neglected district has gained notoriety far beyond its size, driven by young people who, armed with little more than cell phones, have learned to divert money from bank accounts of strangers.
Jamtara quickly transformed into a center of fraud network activitywith money flowing into the region and the “I work on the phone” becoming much more profitable than cultivating the fields, says .
This growth was closely linked to the India’s rapid digital expansion. As mobile telecommunications antennas spread across rural areas and a growing number of people started using banking appsdigital wallets and online commerce, fraudsters found a vast universe of targets recently connected to the internet.
Every innovation in the Indian digital market expanded the range of potential victims. The first manual on these practices was less based on technical “computer piracy” than on classic fraud schemes: pretending to be a bank, creating a feeling of urgency around account access and convince victims to share the one-time password that authorizes a transfer.
Police investigations show the extent to which this model can gain scale. In 2023, in a case released by the Delhi Police and reported by , six men linked to Jamtara were said to have scammed more than 2,500 people by more than ten million rupees (about 92 thousand euros).
Scammers made themselves impersonate bank customer support employees and shopping websites and placing deceptive phone numbers in places where victims could look for them to ask for help.
At the time, the Delhi police seized 12,500 pre-activated SIM cardsin a clear sign that mass fraud depends so much on logistics as well as the ability to persuasion.
The poorly structured organization of these networks makes the authorities’ actions seem like an endless “cat and mouse game”: Groups can fragment, reorganize and quickly change location.
Raids and arrests linked to “Jamtara networks” emerge regularly pbeyond state borders, reflecting networks that recruit, circulate and operate between different states.
In February 2025, West Bengal police announced 46 arrests linked to Jamtara networks involved in online fraud, as well as the seizure of 84 mobile phones and 84 SIM cards, in addition to more than 100 bank cards. Other cases point to the constant evolution of tactics.
In late 2025, Surat police said they had dismantled an interstate network accused of sending messages about supposed “traffic fines” that led victims to install a fake Android “payment” application, allowing money to be stolen from their bank accounts.
Alongside these dispersed networks, focused on the domestic market, cybercriminals also thrived in large cities and industrial zonesoften operating from call centers and targeting Western targets.
In July last year, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided a false call center operating in Noida Special Economic Zone.
Scammers pretended to be computer support techniciansincluding from Microsoft, to deceive foreign citizensfalsely claiming that their devices had been compromised and then demanding payments to “fix” problems that did not exist.
According to the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, the operation was the result of 18 months of collaboration between the CBI, NCA, FBI and Microsoft. In the UK alone, victims would have lost more than £390,000 — around 450 thousand euros.
