'Inside The OTP Mafia' Exposes Dark Underbelly Of Transnational Cyber Crime

Most people at some point have received offers of a loan, a warning that bank cards will be blocked, and even an X-rated video starring the people who received the message. While some are lucky - they hang up and forget about "that annoying call" - others are not. They lose hard-earned money and in extreme, very unfortunate cases - their lives too.

NDTV's 25-minute documentary "Inside The OTP Mafia: Nuh To New York" exposes this dark underbelly of OTP scams, blackmailing and sextortion with never-before-seen footage of a live raid by the Haryana Police, a tell-all chat with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) top expert and a bombshell interview with two, top-of-the-line scammers.

A live sextortion call for our cameras also lays bare India's most dangerous minds.

The thugs running this cartel are not some savvy techies sitting behind big, fancy screens in a city. These men and women are school dropouts operating from the comfort of their charpoys (yes, they work from home) in the fields of Jamtara, Nuh, Mathura, Bharatpur to name a few.

Boundaries are blurred as men from Noida call New Yorkers thousands of miles away. Stats reveal 45,000 Americans fell prey to these callers last year. Their arsenal: the most basic mobile phone handsets, hundreds of SIM cards, and bank accounts of innocent villagers.

"We got 140 cases a day in the US. We rely heavily with local law enforcement on combating this transnational... Some Indians in villages learn to speak like Americans from YouTube and other social media," the top FBI official told NDTV.

"Some of the cases include the loss of a few hundred dollars to a few thousands. It destroys entire savings and lives," the official said.

A woman in the US who was conned by an OTP mafia told NDTV she got a call from a 'government agency' claiming she needs to pay up for dealing in narcotics. Despite her denial, the calls kept coming and threatened her the officials would raid her. They told her she needs to pay first and then meet them.

"I lost thousands of dollars, about 75 per cent of my life's saving that I was planning to use after I retire. My son is 17 and is about to go to college. I have a differently abled daughter too," the woman told NDTV.

Thousands of SIM cards are used in the OTP scams. The Delhi Police had seized 22,000 SIM cards from one such OTP mafia in April this year.

Many of the senior citizens in the US do not expect such kinds of scams would happen in their country. They are very unsuspecting of it.

A few men who were involved in the scam, arrested and later released on bail, told NDTV that they spend their loot on entertainment and upgrading their lifestyle. "We have fun with the money," one of the men said.

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मेजबान पर टूटा मुश्किलों का पहाड़, 4 बड़े खिलाड़ी हो सकते हैं एशिया कप से बाहर, 2 च चोटिल दो कोरोना पॉजिटिव

श्रीलंका को शुक्रवार को करारा झटका लगा जब उसके चार क्रिकेटरों का चोट लगने और कोविड-19 पॉजिटिव आने से आगामी एशिया कप में खेलना संदिग्ध हो गया. तेज गेंदबाज दुष्मंता चामीरा और लेग स्पिनर वानिंदु हसारंगा चोटिल हैं जबकि कुसाल परेरा और अविष्का फर्नांडो कोविड-19 जांच में पॉजिटिव आये हैं.

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"No Pilots Found": Passengers Claim They Were Stuck Inside US Plane For 7 Hours

In a shocking incident, passengers of Spirit Airlines in the United States claimed that they were forced to wait more than seven hours in the plane before takeoff since there was no pilot to fly it, as per a report in People Magazine. Flight 1736 was scheduled to depart from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Richmond, Virginia on August 15 and cover the distance in 2.5 hours.

A passenger on the flight, Lindsey Mascera, recorded a video of the same and shared it on TikTok. It showed a plane full of passengers who waited seven hours inside the aircraft. "So we have 200 passengers on this flight right now. Everyone's luggage is down there. How long have you been waiting?" she asked another passenger, as mentioned by the outlet. "Seven hours," the woman responded in the video.

Ms Mascera added, "So (Spirit Airlines representatives) told us it was going to be 30 minutes, and we're all still on this flight at 10:44. It's almost 11 p.m. and we've been here since 3 p.m. We got delayed and now we're back and there's no pilots to be found and there's no answer." The video ended with the woman stating, "Do not ride Spirit. They s***."

In another clip, a flight attendant told passengers aboard Flight 1736 that "we are not allowed to deplane even though you've been here for over an hour."

Spirit Airlines, in a statement to the outlet, stated that the flight returned to the gate "due to air traffic control-imposed delays and weather conditions. Once at the gate, our Guests were offered access to the terminal. Despite our best efforts, the continued ATC and weather delays affected our abilities to reschedule, and we later cancelled the flight."

They continued, "Our Guests were offered the option to rebook on the next available Spirit flight or request a refund. We apologize for the inconvenience."
 

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"You Watch Out": Belarus President Said He Warned Wagner Chief On Threat

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that he had warned Russian mercenary chiefs Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin to watch out for possible threats to their lives, and he insisted that Wagner fighters would remain in Belarus.

Russian President Vladimir Putin initially vowed to crush Wagner chief's June mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolution of 1917, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus.

Lukashenko, who helped broker the deal, used prison slang shortly after the mutiny to say that he had persuaded Putin not to "wipe out" the mercenary who was listed as a passenger on a private jet which crashed on Wednesday north of Moscow.

Prigozhin, Lukashenko said, had twice dismissed concerns raised by the Belarusian leader about possible threats to his life.

Lukashenko said that during the mutiny he had warned Prigozhin that he would "die" if he continued to march on Moscow, to which he said Prigozhin had answered:

"'To hell with it - I will die'."

Then, Lukashenko said, when Prigozhin and Utkin, who helped found Wagner and was also listed as a passenger on the plane which crashed, had come to see him, he had warned them both:

"Lads - you watch out".

It was not exactly clear from Lukashenko's words, which were reported by the state news agency BELTA, when that conversation took place.

Lukashenko, both an old acquaintance of Prigozhin and a close ally of Russia, said that Vladimir Putin had nothing to do with the plane crash.

"I know Putin: he is calculating, very calm, even tardy," Lukashenko said. "I cannot imagine that Putin did it, that Putin is to blame. It's just too rough and unprofessional a job."

The Kremlin said on Friday that Western suggestions Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an "absolute lie" while declining to definitively confirm his death, citing the need to wait for test results.

Lukashenko said Wagner fighters would remain in Belarus.

"Wagner lived, Wagner is living and Wagner will live in Belarus," Lukashenko said. "The core remains here."

"As long as we need this unit, they will live and work with us," he said.

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"Kargil - A Saga Of Valour": Rahul Gandhi Visits 1999 War Memorial

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday visited the Kargil War Memorial in Drass and paid rich tributes to the Indian Army personnel who sacrificed their lives during the 1999 war with Pakistan.

The memorial is located on the 434-km Srinagar-Leh national highway and about five km from the city centre across the Tiger Hill, Kargil.

आज @RahulGandhi जी ने कारगिल स्थित वॉर मेमोरियल पहुंचकर कारगिल युद्ध में शहीद हुए वीर जवानों को श्रद्धांजलि अर्पित की।

कारगिल हमारे जवानों के साहस और शौर्य का प्रतीक है। हमारा गौरव है, स्वाभिमान है।

यह हमें एहसास दिलाता है कि मातृभूमि की रक्षा हर एक भारतीय की जिम्मेदारी है,… pic.twitter.com/jsK8PnDBVC

— Congress (@INCIndia) August 25, 2023

"Kargil is not just a place, it is a saga of valour. It is the land many of our soldiers served in and resonates with their courage and sacrifice. This is the pride of India and all Indians realise their sense of responsibility towards the country. I bow to all the brave soldiers and martyrs of Kargil War," Mr Gandhi wrote on his social media accounts.

He also shared several pictures of him paying tributes at the memorial built in Drass town to commemorate the 1999 Kargil War between India and Pakistan.

#WATCH | Congress MP Rahul Gandhi pays tribute at Kargil War Memorial in Dras, Ladakh pic.twitter.com/ij89W3DPEm

— ANI (@ANI) August 25, 2023

Mr Gandhi concluded his nine-day tour of Ladakh with a public meeting in Kargil before offering his tribute at the war memorial en route to Srinagar.

He also met local residents of Drass before leaving the town on way to Kashmir in a car, senior Congress leader Asgar Ali Karbalai told PTI.

Mr Gandhi arrived in Leh initially on a two-day visit on August 17 but later extended his stay by a week, touring almost all important locations in the Union Territory of Ladakh on his motorcycle. He rode his bike from Leh to Pangong lake, Nubra, Khardungla top, Lamayuru, Zanskar and Kargil.

However, he left his motorcycle behind and boarded a car for Srinagar where he will be on a personal visit and will be joined by his mother, Sonia Gandhi, on Saturday.

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