Abdullah Yousuf : An Indian citizen named Sandeep Khatri sat silently as he entered the dimly lit rented flat in New Delhi where we had arranged to meet. The blinds were drawn, and the ceiling fan groaned overhead as he sank into a corner of the room, adjusting the cap that obscured most of his face.
Krisna, 27, hails from Gurugram—a booming tech and finance hub on the outskirts of Delhi. But he wasn’t always part of the scam underworld. A few years ago, he was a jobless college dropout, drifting between low-wage gigs. “Nothing steady. Nothing respectable,” he said. “Just desperation.”
One night, sitting beside a friend who had just landed a “tech support job,” he watched the grift unfold in real time: a calm voice on the phone convincing an unsuspecting man that his computer had been hacked. “My friend made 80 dollars in under five minutes,” Keisna recalled. “That was more than I’d earned in two months.”
What followed was a crash course in cyber fraud—how to mimic an American accent, when to sound helpful, when to turn assertive, how to follow the script, and how to push just the right buttons to induce panic.
He learned quickly. Within weeks, he was impersonating support agents from Amazon, Microsoft, or even the IRS depending on the day’s assignment.
The “office” he works from, he said, is another rented flat—like the one we met in—outfitted with makeshift partitions, broadband internet, and rotating crews of workers. “We move every six months,” he said. “You can’t stay in one place for too long.”
Across India, thousands of young, unemployed men like Krisna are quietly powering a cybercrime economy that’s now worth millions—and growing fast.
This shadow industry has drawn the attention of global law enforcement, including the FBI and Interpol, sparking diplomatic tension between India and the West. What began as a fringe hustle has morphed into a sophisticated parallel economy complete with call center-style training, managers, performance quotas, and international revenue pipelines all hidden behind a browser tab and a borrowed accent.
Western countries—most notably the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, Australia are bearing the brunt of a rising wave of cross-border scams. Operating from within India, fraudsters routinely pose as officials from agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to dupe foreign nationals out of significant sums of money.
Mounting pressure from international partners has prompted Indian law enforcement to intensify efforts against these transnational cybercrimes.
Last year, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in coordination with the FBI and Interpol, dismantled a highly organised cyber-enabled fraud ring operating out of the National Capital Region (NCR), arresting 43 individuals accused of siphoning off more than $20 million from unsuspecting victims.
Joblessness Driving the Scam Economy
Nearly 800 kilometres away, in the Indian-administered region of Kashmir, 28-year-old Naraon Pande remains on the run evading an aggressive crackdown on cyber fraud by local authorities.
In recent months, police in the conflict-hit region have carried out sweeping raids across Srinagar and its surrounding areas, unearthing a vast scam network connected to more than 7,200 bank accounts. Several of Naraon Pande’s former associates have already been arrested.
Speaking from a friend’s phone at an undisclosed location, Naraon Pande described the atmosphere as “relentless.”
“The police are hunting the entire network. They’re on us like wolves,” he said.
Naraon Pande’s descent into cybercrime began with a shaky cold call to Kansas, USA posing as a technician from “Windows Support.” Nervous and sweating, his voice cracked but the American on the other end believed the ruse. Just hours later, $700 appeared in his digital wallet. “That was it,” Naraon Pande said. “I stopped chasing job interviews after that.”
Once a hopeful IT graduate, Naraon Pande turned to scamming after repeated job rejections and watching friends prosper in the so-called “calling” trade. His operations now target English-speaking countries, extracting hundreds of dollars from victims through bogus refund requests and tech support scams.
“The victims are rich. We’re not,” he said without remorse. “It feels like reverse colonialism.”
His sentiment isn’t unique. Across India’s underground scam economy, that justification resonates widely. Stories like Naraon Pande’s are no longer outliers they’re becoming the norm in a system where poverty, unemployment, and a crumbling social contract feed an illicit industry thriving in the digital shadows.
Another young man, Sunil (24), describes himself as an “employed scammer,” operating his share of a larger fraud network out of a rented flat converted into an office in suburban Delhi. His journey into cybercrime, like many others, began not with ambition, but with frustration. After completing a vocational training course from a technical institute, Sunil found himself adrift in a saturated job market, unable to secure meaningful work.
The call centre job he eventually landed seemed legitimate until it wasn’t.
“It wasn’t until the second week that I realised what we were actually doing,” he recalled. “We were asking for remote access, planting fake security pop-ups, pretending to be Microsoft technicians. That’s when the truth hit me.” But by then, the money had started flowing in.
Today, Sunil works behind the scenes managing digital wallets, purchasing bulk SIM cards, and moving illicit funds through mule accounts. “It’s basically like running a start-up,” he said, matter-of-factly.
A Rural Cybercrime Hub
While urban scammers like Sunil operate from apartments in tech-saturated cities, much of India’s cybercrime industry is rooted in rural and neglected regions areas left behind by the country’s economic growth.
In the dusty, underdeveloped villages of Mewat, a largely rural district in northern Haryana, cyber fraud has become a parallel economy. Prakash (30) at his modest home there, he spoke with unflinching honesty about how deeply embedded digital scams had become in his community.
“Cybercrime is the only ‘industry’ here,” he said. “We’re not getting government jobs. We’re not getting private ones either.”
Over the last decade, Mewat has gained infamy as a breeding ground for digital fraud, with hundreds of young men mostly unemployed and undereducated running scams from their homes. The region’s endemic poverty, low literacy rates, and systemic neglect have turned it into a fertile base for organised cybercrime, often with minimal fear of enforcement.
“No one in my village has ever had a government job,” Prakash. “So when someone hands you a headset, offers training, and promises 25,000 rupees (about $300) a month, you don’t think twice. You just say ‘yes’.”
According to the India Employment Report 2024, jointly released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Institute for Human Development (IHD), youth between the ages of 15 and 29 account for a staggering 83% of the country’s unemployed population a statistic that helps explain why cybercrime is flourishing.
For those who make it in the scam world, the financial rewards can far surpass what’s offered by legitimate employment.
Top performers in Prakash’s circle routinely earn over ₹100,000 ($1,200) a month far more than what many formal-sector tech jobs offer. “I bought a luxury car, I support my family, and I still manage to save,” he said with visible pride. “Tell me what else should a job give you?”
Prakash, who identifies himself as an “intermediary” within the scam ecosystem, oversees a small team of five to six men. “One of my guys made ₹300,000 (about $3,600) from a single target,” he said. “Others have pulled in ₹5 million (about $60,000) over the course of a year.”
Many of these scam operations are orchestrated from makeshift indoor setups that mimic legitimate call centres. Rows of desks, headsets, and cheap partitions give the illusion of a tech startup but behind the façade lies a complex web of deception.
In more rural pockets, like Mewat in Haryana, the operations take on a leaner, more mobile form. There, scammers often work from open fields, roadside tea stalls, or even under trees — armed with just a smartphone and a strong mobile signal. These informal, open-air “offices” offer the added advantage of mobility, allowing operators to vanish quickly at the first sign of police activity.
Organised, Scalable, and Virtually Undetectable
The scams are highly systematised, often targeting foreign nationals particularly in the US, UK, and Canada, Australia with well-rehearsed tech support and refund fraud schemes. Impersonating representatives from companies like Microsoft or government bodies such as the IRS or USCIS, the fraudsters make unsolicited calls or trigger pop-up alerts that warn of fictitious security breaches.
Once a victim responds, scammers coax them into granting remote access to their computers, run fabricated diagnostics, and pressure them into paying for bogus services or refunds. Payments are typically collected via gift cards, cryptocurrency, or wire transfers routed through a maze of intermediaries to obscure the money trail.
Prabesh Chakravarty, founder of Cryptus Cyber Security Pvt. Ltd and a long-time tracker of India’s cyber fraud ecosystem, says the scam industry has matured into a shadow sector of its own.
“These are not just random individuals operating from basements,” he explains. “We’re dealing with entire fraud enterprises complete with HR teams, training modules, managers, and internal performance reviews.”
According to Prabesh Chakravarty, many of these centres pose as legitimate tech support or BPO companies. New recruits are trained in accent neutralisation, psychological manipulation, and how to follow detailed scripts. They are also taught how to handle sceptical or angry targets, and how to navigate through layers of digital anonymity using VPNs, spoofed caller IDs, encrypted messaging apps, and crypto wallets.
While Indian authorities have occasionally cracked down on high-profile scam hubs often in coordination with agencies like the FBI or Interpol enforcement remains patchy, and legal consequences are rare.
“There is a massive enforcement vacuum,” said Pavan Duggal, a senior Supreme Court advocate and one of India’s foremost experts on cyber law. “India lacks dedicated legislation on spam, phishing, or digital impersonation. Our cybercrime conviction rate is below 1 percent and that’s a clear signal to offenders that they can operate with near impunity. It should be noted that Indian scammers typically do not target fellow Indians, as the majority of the local population is economically disadvantaged. Instead, they focus on scamming foreigners, which contributes to the cybercrime conviction rate remaining below 1%
Duggal noted that India’s vulnerability to cyber fraud is exacerbated by a lack of robust enforcement mechanisms and long delays in implementing critical digital regulations.
“We still haven’t operationalised the Digital Personal Data Protection Act of 2023 because the government is yet to finalise the rules,” he said.
Once enacted, the Act is expected to offer a comprehensive legal framework governing the collection, storage, and use of personal data tools essential for tracing digital fraud and holding tech platforms accountable. Yet nearly two years after the law was passed, its implementation remains stalled in bureaucratic limbo.
In this regulatory void, Duggal said, India has become “a destination hub and fertile ground for the proliferation of spam calls and cyber fraud,” much of it tied to sophisticated internet-based scams.
The absence of strong legal deterrents has only emboldened offenders, he added. “There are virtually no effective convictions, and most cybercrimes remain bailable under current law. This creates a perception that India is soft on digital criminals.”
Duggal has been a vocal advocate for sweeping reforms in India’s cyber legislation. “We urgently need a dedicated Cybercrime Act that addresses the realities of today’s digital landscape. It must include mechanisms for fast-tracked prosecution, victim compensation, and seamless international collaboration.”
But even as legal experts call for sharper deterrents, the low cost and ease of launching cyber fraud operations in India continues to drive their proliferation.
At the most basic level, individual fraudsters can set up a scam with just INR 50,000 (around $600) enough for a second-hand laptop, a smartphone, and a decent internet connection. Larger, more organised outfits often disguised as legitimate business process outsourcing (BPO) centres can require investments of up to INR 2 million (roughly $24,000), excluding rent and salaries.
These setups are often staffed with 10 to 40 people, each performing specialised roles from voice agents to finance handlers mimicking the infrastructure of a legitimate corporate office.
A Parallel Economy
The scale of cyber fraud from India is now massive.
According to the National Cyber Reporting Platform under the Ministry of Home Affairs, scammers siphoned off over ₹331.65 billion (about $3.88 billion) from victims between 2020 and 2024 with a staggering ₹228.12 billion ($2.67 billion) lost in just the past year.
This underground economy has been supercharged by India’s rapid adoption of digital payments, the anonymity of online tools, and the patchy enforcement of cybercrime laws.
Cybersecurity expert Prabesh Choudhary says the fraud ecosystem now mirrors formal job sectors. “There are designated roles recruiters, trainers, lead generators, even HR-like positions. Some people specialise in sourcing personal data emails, phone numbers, and addresses and sell that information to scammers in bulk.”
“In just the Delhi-NCR region, more than a thousand such fake tech support firms were active in 2017–18,” Choudhary said. “That was before COVID. Since then, their methods have evolved, but the scale hasn’t declined only their tactics have become more sophisticated.”
Choudhary explains that many scammers come from humble origins and possess limited formal education.
“Most haven’t completed their higher secondary education. Some have dropped out of school or college,” he noted. “They turn to scams because they see no other viable way to make money. It’s fast cash no waiting around for a monthly salary.”
Driven by low barriers to entry and lucrative payoffs, this fraud ecosystem has grown into a shadow economy that mimics the organization and hierarchy of legitimate enterprises.
Within this underground network, individuals view themselves not as criminals, but as businesspeople. He frames his role in corporate jargon: “We hold ‘pitch meetings.’ We close deals. The only difference is that our product is counterfeit,” he said with a nonchalant shrug. “But the grind? That’s absolutely real.”
Recently, we’ve observed a significant increase in scam calls, many of which appear to involve individuals speaking with a distinct Indian English accent. This trend is concerning and cannot be overlooked. It’s imperative that the Australian government takes decisive and proactive measures to address this growing issue, rather than continuing to ignore it.
To highlight the urgency, just in 2025 alone, we have received reports of several major Australian organisations being compromised.
July 2025
- O&G (Obstetrics and Gynaecology)
- Qantas
June 2025
- Vertel
- Pressure Dynamics
- Skeggs Goldstien
May 2025
- 3P Corporation
- The Legal Practice Board of Western Australia
- MKA Accountants
- Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
- Watkins Steel
April 2025
- Hertz
- The Fullerton Hotel Sydney
- Western Sydney University
- REST and AustralianSuper
- Hexicor
- 13Cabs
March 2025
- Vroom by YouX
- Sydney Tools
- Department of Communities and Justice
- Australian TFE Hotels
- Brydens Lawyers
- CISCAL
- Wendy Wu Tours
- Zurich Insurance
February 2025
- Australian adult website
- Riverina Medical and Dental Aboriginal Corporation
- Pound Road Medical Centre
- Genea Fertility
- Brown and Hurley
- Albright Institute of Language and Business
- Australian National University
- Regency Media
- Natures Organics
January 2025
- Clutch Industries
- JB Hi-Fi
- Christian Community Aid
- Muswellbrook Shire Council
- Unique Cars and Parts
- Novati Constructions
- University of NSW
- DBG Health
- Globelink
- Austin’s Financial Solutions
- ARDEX Australia
- Spectrum Medical Imaging
- Evidn
- Volkswagen
- SquareX
- MediSecure