NIA charge sheet against 5 people linked to human trafficking and cyber fraud syndicates; 2 inmates | News from India

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday indicted five accused, including two foreign nationals, in a case relating to human trafficking and cyber fraud syndicates operating both inside and outside the country.
While two accused, Jerry Jacob and Godfrey Alvares, are under arrest, the other three, Sunny Gonsalves and foreign nationals Niu Niu and Elvis Du, are on the run.
According to the NIA's investigation into the case – in which several foreign nationals are implicated, according to the indictment – the defendants targeted young Indians with computer and English skills and forced them to work in fraudulent call centers with a tourist visa, for monetary gains. The victims were recruited, transported and transferred from India to the Golden Triangle SEZ in Lao PDR via Thailand. Upon arrival, they were trained in the use of Facebook, Telegram, the basics of cryptocurrency and how to manage applications created by the fraudulent company.
The powerful unions also used victim control tactics in case any of the young victims of trafficking refused to continue their activity. online fraud work. These tactics included isolation and restriction of movement, confiscation of personal travel documents and physical violence, arbitrary fines, death threats, threats of rape in the case of women and threats of appearance in a false drug cases at the local police station, etc.
Human trafficking and cyber fraud, an NIA spokesperson said, was carried out boldly, with defendants even deleting data from victims' cell phones to destroy evidence. Victims were threatened if they contacted the relevant embassy or any local authority. In some cases, victims were held in fraudulent compounds, confined without food for three to seven days, and tortured if they refused to work. They were released only after extraction of extortion payments ranging from Rs 30,000 to Rs. 1,80,000, or intervention of the Indian Embassy in Lao PDR on the complaints filed by the victims.
According to the Indian Cyber ​​Coordination Center (I4C), Southeast Asian countries like Lao PDR and Cambodia have recently become the new centers of reported financial cyber fraud in India, with 46% of the defrauded money now lost to cybercrimes like investment scams and digital arrests. scams, business scams and dating scams originating from there.