In 2020, the police in Delhi NCR arrested a slew of people involved in tech support scams. This story is about the scambaiters who helped make this possible.
Amit Chauhan almost had it all.
He wore bespoke clothes, planned luxury getaways, and paid rent so obscene, it’d make midtown Manhattan blush. He spent $6,840 (Rs 5 lakh and change) each month to live in a penthouse in DLF Magnolias, the kind of enclave that comes with valets, Olympic-size pools, gilded bars and restaurants, gold-class theatres, and all manner of opulence you’d associate with the bourgeoisie in Gurugram. He also owned Porsches and Jaguars with VIP plates.
Chauhan hails from the moribund town of Pillukhera, Haryana, and achieved all this before he was 30. No wonder people wanted to …
Roshni is a features writer and former editor of The Morning Context's Chaos team. Her career spans The Ken, Reuters, the Hindustan Times and DNA. She is a recipient of the UNFPA Laadli award and was shortlisted for the RedInk Awards 2016 for her story on Mumbai’s leprosy colonies. Her far-flung ideas would sometimes drive our editor-in-chief Ashish up the wall, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way (even if he didn’t admit it).
roshni@mailtmc.com