Srinagar: Digital scams are emerging as a new challenge in Kashmir, with senior citizens and retired officials falling prey to the tricks of scamsters.
A curious case that has come to the fore starts with a normal text from a young girl on the social media giant Facebook on the pretext of career guidance and counselling. It soon turns out to be a trap from which several retired officials in Kashmir are unable to find an exit.
This is the modus operandi of an emerging blackmailing and extortion racket in the valley, with many senior citizens falling prey but unwilling to disclose or document their ordeal.
A senior police official in Kashmir disclosed they had found a young college girl aged between 20-25 years to be behind befriending and trapping these old men. He said this came to the fore through a family member of a senior retired official after being befriended by the girl.
“He would transfer an amount to the girl after every week. This caught the attention of his close family member, who disclosed it to us and found out the girl on Facebook mimicking the same method with multiple senior citizens,” he told ETV Bharat.
Describing this as part of cyber scams, the official expressed his helplessness, saying none are unwilling to come forward to file a formal complaint with the police for multiple reasons.
In Kashmir, the trend of digital scams has seen an upward trend, with Cyber Police Kashmir recovering Rs 4.72 crore defrauded from victims of online scams last year. In November, the police arrested three persons who impersonated officials to fraudulently extract Rs 21 lakhs from a senior citizen in Srinagar.
The government has launched large-scale awareness initiatives to educate people on digital scams and crimes, but cybercriminals are adopting novel tactics to manipulate people and entrap them in their well-planned actions.
The official said the woman chalk out the plan and tailor it as per each individual. In all this, according to him, phone numbers are exchanged and meetings as well. While the retired officials initially seek to extend a helping hand in career advancement, they eventually slip into informal phone conversations, only to end up in a trap.
“This is where the real game starts. While the official thinks of the girl as a deeply private affair owing to her poor condition and shyness in retorting, the girl in the meantime records enough of their exchanges,” noted the official.
The extortion game plan is then set into motion as the girl seeks a sum in the thousands, perhaps to protect whatever transpired against public shame.
“This stops many respected individuals from going public against the blackmailing, and as such, they suffer in silence, and their lives turn into torture,” he said.
For 2025, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), run under the Union home ministry, has projected a loss of an estimated Rs 1.2 lakh crore to cyber fraud.
In December 2023, an alleged scam shook Kashmir after a company named “Curative Survey” fled the valley with 59 crore rupees taken from hundreds of locals on the pretext of investment that guarantees double returns within short periods. But the police said the case can be put against the fraudster once a victim records their statement with them. “But so far none is willing,” he said.
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