Slumdog millionaire: Amdavadi boy’s dark web of deceit – Times of India

Slumdog millionaire: Amdavadi boy’s dark web of deceit – Times of India


He dropped out of Class 12 because he wasn’t academically inclined and his family pressed him to take up some work. He was fond of digital devices, began surfing the internet and grew addicted to social media ‘likes’. One fateful morning, his virtual path crossed that of a man from Karachi, Jia Mustufa, who went on to mentor him on his path to swindling people of millions.


He mastered the tricks and intricacies of this dubious work in three short years. It has fetched him nearly Rs 50 crore so far, which investigators estimate is the value of goods he has fraudulently bought and sold off.
Police say he has 12 cryptocurrency accounts that they know of, with each holding $25,000 to $30,000. This is the story of 22-year-old Harshwardhan Parmar, a resident of Narayannagar Society in Isanpur, the son of a contracted sanitation worker who worked in the Covid-19 ward at SVP Hospital.


Harshwardhan did not do well in school, barely passing the Class 10 exams. By Class 11, his family was pushing him to either study properly or start working. Fed up with their constant pressure, he started spending time on social media. He did some photo and video shoots, which gained him appreciation in terms of ‘likes’ on social media.
In 2018, Parmar was added to a Telegram group named ‘Dark secrets’, where he came across people who used to sell active bank account details in bulk. Parmar also tried his hand at a few deals and earned around Rs 2,000 in his first one.


While active on such groups, he came into contact with Mustufa, who advised him not to deal on the open web and to move to the dark web.


Mustufa taught him the tricks of the scammer life and advised him to approach Russian hackers who run websites where active debit and credit card details of people from some 50 countries are sold. Parmar followed the instructions, bought credit and debit card details and began emptying the accounts of people in countries ranging from the US to Uganda.


According to police, Parmar takes less than half a minute to get a victim’s credit or debit card, check the balance, and buy some valuables or jewellery, which he later sells for cash.
According to an estimate, he bought and sold items worth Rs 50 crore in about a year. His racket was busted when the cops caught him and two others, after he placed an order for 30 refrigerators at a shop on Ashram Road.
He was arrested and later released on bail. Even after his release, he has been continuing to make purchases from the dark web, by which his IP address cannot be traced.


He also takes care of his friends. “If his friends wanted to have a party, Parmar would book a deluxe suite at a five-star hotel for them, pay for their wining and dining, and in some cases also for the services of sex workers of foreign origin,” said a police officer investigating the case.


Police say they are unable to act against him because he has not left a digital footprint of his racket. They say he has now graduated to running a syndicate of some 10 youths, who he is mentoring in scamming people. They now use the dark web to get debit or credit cards from Russian hackers and empty accounts, splitting various aspects of the ‘work’ and the proceeds.


Parmar, now the mentor, gets the lion’s share. All these youths are school dropouts and are scamming wealthy people across the globe.