Aug 11, 2026 · 56 min · 12 segments
You've received the call. The scam artist trying to get your information. Perhaps you fell for it, perhaps you knew better. In either case, it becomes a story to tell over coffee. But who are the…
Snigdha PoonamGuest
Sunaina JainHostSo this is, uh, serendipitous, and you did not intend on writing a book when this came to you out of the blue.
Okay.
You write somewhere, I think it's the name of a chapter, that scamming is the new farming.
Can you give us a sense of a scale? How many people do you think are working on this, uh, and how much money are we talking about?
And, um, there-- The statement was told to me by someone, so I, it's, um, it's, it's a quote.
But it's also quite literal in the sense that some of these, um, guys, very young, 19, 20, who, who make the phone calls, the scam calls from Jamtara, their fathers did work in farming.
Maybe in most cases, in fact, they didn't own the land, but they were laborers on the land.
Um, and the person who's telling me this statement says that it, there's a sort of, again, like a literal logic to scamming is a new farming, in that he says for their fathers, they, you know, they would sow a new crop every season.
For the, for their sons, they, they must think of a new scam every season because let's say, you know, the initially 2010, 2011, we used to, we, we all used to get calls saying, "Apka ATM bandh hone wala hai." You know, your ATM card's going to, um, stop working.
And, and that went away, right? And now today we are being told that we're going to be arrested by, um, the police or the CBI or, or something like that.
And, uh, it works like a, almost like an industry in that, um, of course, the numbers of people who are involved, at the center you will have young enterprising men who come up with a scam.
So every time, as Jitu, one, one of my protagonists from that chapter tells me, every time we get a digital app, website, a new e-commerce thing that makes our lives convenient, um, they are watching, and so they will create a new scam based on, like SBI launches a new credit card for exclusive, just limited member, members only.
They find out obviously, 'cause they, we are all living in, in an online world.
And so they will, they-- He explains how then using that very technology that only sort of a limited number of people use that card, they will think of something to scam the, the sort of very obviously privileged set of people.
So these are young, they are young people who are very technologically savvy.
They're coming up with links and apps and, um, all kinds of even like remote access, stuff like that.
But then the larger economy around it is what really fascinated me because you also have, um- Lots of people who, um, open fake bank accounts for them.
So these customer service points where people go to get their pensions or to open a bank account, those work in this economy.
Um, so that when Jitu steals money from my bank account, it doesn't go to his bank.
So this is, uh, serendipitous, and you did not intend on writing a book when this came to you out of the blue.
Okay.
You write somewhere, I think it's the name of a chapter, that scamming is the new farming.
Can you give us a sense of a scale? How many people do you think are working on this, uh, and how much money are we talking about?
And, um, there-- The statement was told to me by someone, so I, it's, um, it's, it's a quote.
But it's also quite literal in the sense that some of these, um, guys, very young, 19, 20, who, who make the phone calls, the scam calls from Jamtara, their fathers did work in farming.
Maybe in most cases, in fact, they didn't own the land, but they were laborers on the land.
Um, and the person who's telling me this statement says that it, there's a sort of, again, like a literal logic to scamming is a new farming, in that he says for their fathers, they, you know, they would sow a new crop every season.
For the, for their sons, they, they must think of a new scam every season because let's say, you know, the initially 2010, 2011, we used to, we, we all used to get calls saying, "Apka ATM bandh hone wala hai." You know, your ATM card's going to, um, stop working.
And, and that went away, right? And now today we are being told that we're going to be arrested by, um, the police or the CBI or, or something like that.
And, uh, it works like a, almost like an industry in that, um, of course, the numbers of people who are involved, at the center you will have young enterprising men who come up with a scam.
So every time, as Jitu, one, one of my protagonists from that chapter tells me, every time we get a digital app, website, a new e-commerce thing that makes our lives convenient, um, they are watching, and so they will create a new scam based on, like SBI launches a new credit card for exclusive, just limited member, members only.
They find out obviously, 'cause they, we are all living in, in an online world.
And so they will, they-- He explains how then using that very technology that only sort of a limited number of people use that card, they will think of something to scam the, the sort of very obviously privileged set of people.
So these are young, they are young people who are very technologically savvy.
They're coming up with links and apps and, um, all kinds of even like remote access, stuff like that.
But then the larger economy around it is what really fascinated me because you also have, um- Lots of people who, um, open fake bank accounts for them.
So these customer service points where people go to get their pensions or to open a bank account, those work in this economy.
Um, so that when Jitu steals money from my bank account, it doesn't go to his bank.
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