Fake UPI IDS of PM relief fund used by fraudsters under police scanner
nHave we flattened the curve in terms of number of cases?
No.
India saw 5,314 new infections on Tuesday, which marked the end of eight weeks since the lockdown was imposed. The daily numbers have continued to rise. The daily average in Week 1 of the lockdown was 153; in the seven seeks since it has risen, to 531, 876, 1228, 1611, 2560, 3541, and 4494 (the last in Week 8 ended Tuesday). The chart here maps daily cases since March 25 till May 19, and also weekly averages.
Have we flattened the curve in terms of number of deaths?
No.
India added 146 deaths to its tally on Tuesday (it isn’t clear whether all deaths occurred in the previous 24 hours given that hospitals have to file the paperwork in a certain format and death audit committees have to sign off on them). These numbers too continue to rise. The daily average in Week 1 of the lockdown was 5; in the 7 weeks since it has risen to 16, 33, 36, 52, 87, 104, and 127 (the last in the week ended Tuesday). The chart here maps deaths since March 25 and weekly averages.
Is there no good news at all? No; there is good news.
The number of people who recover from the coronavirus disease on a daily basis grew steadily – in terms of both weekly averages over the eight weeks and the cumulative number. The recovery rate (number of those recovered expressed as a proportion of the total number of cases) too rose steadily over the eight weeks. The chart here maps all three metrics.
What about the death rate?
That too has inched down in recent weeks (although this needs caveating).
Death rates can be calculated in different ways. This column has taken the so-called Case Fatality Rate (CFR), which is the number of deaths expressed as the number of cases. Some experts suggest that a better way to calculate this would be to take the number of cases two weeks back. Indeed, with 53.25% of the cases seen in India being recorded in the past two weeks, this seems logical. But we have stuck to the traditional way of calculating death rates. The chart here maps the death rate on a daily basis since March 25.
Daily cases
Mar 25
Daily deaths 200
150 100 50
0
Mar 25
Daily recoveries 4500
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0
Mar 25
Death rate 4.0
3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0
1.5
Mar 25
May 19
May 19
Recovery %
45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0
May 19
May 19
What’s driving the growth of the pandemic in India?
Right now, the states of Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat. Indeed this has been the case since March 25. The charts below show the contribution of these four states to the total number of cases in India over these eight weeks; and the growth of infections in these four states and the rest of India over the same time.
Four states*
120000
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20000
0
Mar 25 to Apr 2 to Apr 8 to Apr 15 to Apr 22 to Apr 29 to May 6 to May 13 to Apr 1 Apr 7 Apr 14 Apr 21 Apr 28 May 5 May 12 May 19
NEWDELHI: Delhi Police is probing two cyber fraud cases where fake Unified Payments Interface (UPI) IDS of the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (Pm-cares) Fund were created to dupe people into parting with money for donations to the fight against Covid-19.
Delhi Police cyber cell investigators traced people behind the fraud to some areas in Jharkhand, including Jamtara, which has emerged as a hub of cyber
Rest of India
ANYESH ROY, deputy commissioner of police, cyber cell
frauds such as phishing in recent years.
Cyber cell officials said that during an investigation they came across 80 fake UPI IDS that were created around the same time in March when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Pm-cares Fund.
Weekly average
Weekly average
Weekly average
Four states*
Mar 25
Rest of India
May 19 *Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu
“All such fake UPI IDS, which looked similar to the original ID of Pm-cares Fund, were deactivated as soon they came to our notice, either during the investigation or flagged by other agencies. A majority of the scamsters have been traced to areas in Bihar and Jharkhand’s Jamtara,
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All such fake UPI IDS, which looked similar to the original ID of Pm-cares Fund, were deactivated as soon they came to our notice, either during the investigation or flagged by other agencies.
Hazaribagh,” said deputy commissioner of police (cyber cell) Anyesh Roy.
The ongoing lockdown for the coronavirus disease outbreak and the fact that the racketeers are located in thickly forested areas where Maoist rebels are active have prompted investigators to delay sending in raiding teams to the areas. Senior officers said the operation may last more than a week and arranging logistics such as food and accommodation in the terrain would be difficult in the present circumstances.
“We will soon be sending our teams to catch the suspects,” said DCP Roy.
A senior police officer familiar with the developments said two brothers were arrested in Hazaribagh last month for being part of the racket that had duped people to the tune of around ₹52 lakh in the guise of donations to the Pm-cares Fund. The racket’s mastermind is still at large.
“Our teams will also get in touch with the Hazaribagh police and if required, the two brothers will be questioned to ascertain if their gang created the fake UPI IDS that came to our notice..,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.
The city police detected the first fake UPI ID on March 28, just a couple of hours after the Prime Minister announced its formation and called for donations to help fight the Covid-19 outbreak.
DCP Roy said that around ₹47,000 was deposited in the fake UPI ID “Pmcare@sbi” by the time it was blocked and a case was registered. Within a week, the cyber cell officials came across another case wherein the screenshot of a fake UPI ID was uploaded on social media, urging people to donate to the fund.
“We registered a separate case and both the cases were probed. The fraudsters in both the cases were traced to Bihar and Jharkhand,” he added.
Last month, Maharashtra cyber police officials said racketeers were using fake links to dupe people in the name of online donations to the Pm-cares Fund and that 78 cases were registered for spreading misinformation online on the coronavirus outbreak.
The officials asked the people to use the authentic link, which is pmcares@sbi, to donate funds to fight the virus.