Hyderabad, October 23, 2025 – In a sweeping crackdown on one of India's most audacious cyber extortion syndicates, Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police dismantled a shadowy "ghost caller" network on Wednesday, arresting 20 operatives and freezing assets worth ₹45 crore linked to a ₹100 crore fraud spree that preyed on terrified citizens through spoofed calls from fake Income Tax officials. The operation, dubbed "Phantom Freeze," spanned three states and exposed a sophisticated racket using voice modulation tech and mule accounts to mimic IRS sleuths, leaving over 5,000 victims – from retirees to small business owners – in financial ruin and psychological distress.
The breakthrough came after a six-month undercover probe triggered by a spike in complaints to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, where distraught Hyderabad residents reported chilling calls from "IRS officers" accusing them of tax evasion and threatening immediate arrest or asset seizure unless ransoms were paid via UPI or crypto wallets. "These weren't mere scams; they were psychological warfare," said Cyber Crime Assistant Commissioner P. Sai Krishna at a press conference in Banjara Hills, displaying seized laptops rigged with VoIP spoofing software and ledgers detailing ₹102.3 crore in laundered proceeds. "The gang used AI-generated voices of real IRS officials, scraped from public videos, to sound authentic – victims transferred money in panic, often within minutes."
The syndicate, led by 38-year-old tech whiz-turned-fraudster Mohammed Rafiq, operated from a nondescript call center in Hyderabad's Kukatpally disguised as a "telemarketing firm." Rafiq, a former IT engineer ousted from a Gachibowli startup for embezzlement, recruited 15 callers – mostly unemployed graduates from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh – via Telegram channels promising "high-commission sales jobs." The 20 arrests, including eight women used as mule account holders, unfolded in coordinated raids at 4 a.m. across Hyderabad, Nizamabad, and Delhi, where police seized 150 burner phones, 25 laptops, and ₹12 crore in cash stuffed in almirahs. Two kingpins remain at large, believed to be in Dubai coordinating from encrypted apps, with Interpol red notices issued.
Victim testimonies paint a harrowing picture. Among the hardest hit was 62-year-old widow Lakshmi Devi from Secunderabad, who lost ₹8 lakh in March after a "senior IRS inspector" – voice eerily mimicking a TV news clip of a tax official – claimed her late husband's pension was under probe for "black money." "He knew my PAN, Aadhaar details – even my address. I transferred everything, fearing jail," she recounted tearfully to media outside the cyber police station. Police data reveals the gang targeted middle-class families via data breaches from hacked e-governance portals, amassing victim profiles with KYC info. Over 70% of extortions – averaging ₹20,000 per hit – funneled through 500+ mule accounts, with proceeds converted to USDT crypto and hawalaed abroad.
This bust illuminates a surging menace: IRS impersonation scams have ballooned 450% in Telangana since 2023, per Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) stats, claiming ₹1,500 crore nationwide. "Ghost calling" – anonymous VoIP calls via apps like TextNow – evades tracing, but Hyderabad's team cracked it using call pattern analytics and sting operations where decoy officers posed as marks. "We traced IP trails to a VPN in Malaysia, leading to Rafiq's Telegram handle 'TaxGhost01,'" Krishna detailed, crediting a ₹5 lakh reward that lured an insider tip.
Rafiq and his core aides face charges under IPC Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), and IT Act 66D (identity theft), with potential 10-year sentences. Courts remanded the 20 to 14 days' custody, while police vowed to refund ₹30 crore to verified victims via the PM's Cyber Surakshit Bharat portal. Telangana DGP M Mahender Reddy, addressing the arrests on Police Commemoration Day's heels, linked it to broader crackdowns: "Post the Nizamabad constable killing, we're doubling cyber patrols – no safe haven for digital dacoits."
As Hyderabad's tech-savvy populace – home to 10 lakh IT professionals – grapples with digital distrust, experts call for systemic shields. "Mandatory two-factor verification for UPI and AI-flagged spoof calls could slash these by 80%," urged cybersecurity firm Quick Heal's MD Sunil Chandna. For now, the ghost callers' line has gone dead, but in India's cyber underbelly, the next dial may already be turning. Victims like Lakshmi, clutching a reimbursement form, find solace in the bust: "At least now, I can sleep without the phone ringing."
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