Chitradeep Chakraborty’s Jamtara Calling explores India’s phone scam capital, revealing the human stories, poverty and easy money driving digital fraud networks, writes Wajeeha Hajirah
We receive several calls every day. We might pick these up without a thought. Yet a single call may cost someone a lifetime’s savings. Today’s world runs on digital technology. This makes everyday tasks convenient. But it has also given scammers a new platform to deceive people.
Jamtara Calling by Chitradeep Chakraborty takes the reader deep into the world of scams and cybercrime. The reader is guided into a world that might seem unfamiliar at first. On closer look, it becomes clear how closely our digital lives are tied to it. This is one of the strengths of the book. It does not treat cybercrime as a distant problem. It treats it as something woven into our daily habits.
The Scam Capital
Jamtara, a district in Jharkhand, is home to phone based financial frauds. The author does not simply show us the criminal activities. Instead, he gives a detailed introduction to the world of cybercrime. The book offers an understanding of the people involved. It shows the environment and circumstances that lead to these criminal activities. This is not simply an account of cybercrime. It is a detailed portrait of the world and the people behind it. It looks past the crime itself. It looks at the district, its history and its reputation.
The scale behind the book is staggering. India recorded nearly 80 lakh cases of digital payment fraud over the last three years. These cases involved Rs 13002 crore, the government told the Rajya Sabha.
In the current year, up to January, 24.17 lakh cases involving Rs 3775 crore have already been recorded. The government has responded with new tools. One is MuleHunter, an AI based system to identify money mule accounts. Another is the Indian Digital Payment Intelligence Corporation, set up in October 2025. These numbers give the book its real world weight. They show that Jamtara is not an isolated story. It is one thread in a much larger, growing problem.
The book’s central subject, the mule account, sits at the heart of these official figures too. MuleHunter exists because networks like the ones Chakraborty describes keep finding new accounts to move stolen money through. The government’s own data confirms what the book shows on the ground. Fraud is not shrinking. It is simply moving faster and getting harder to trace.
The safeguards mentioned in the official reply, device binding, two factor authentication, transaction limits, read like direct answers to the tricks described in Jamtara Calling. Every barrier the RBI adds is a barrier the scammers in the book learn to work around. This is the same cat and mouse pattern Chakraborty documents at ground level, playing out now at the level of national policy.
Read alongside these figures, the book stops feeling like a story about one small town. It reads more like a case study behind a national statistic.
Sharing an OTP, installing an app or trusting someone on a call can cost a lifetime’s savings. Something meant to make life easier can be misused through manipulation. Jamtara Calling shows the relationship between digital technology, human behaviour, emotion and scams. It shows how trust is the real currency scammers trade in. Technology is only the tool.
Journalist’s Journey
How the author presents the story is one of the most interesting parts of the book. Chakraborty shares his experience of visiting Jamtara as an investigative journalist. He was driven by curiosity. This little known district carried out one of the biggest phone based scams for years. It went untraced for years. He immersed himself in this world of cybercrime. He met people with very little formal education but very sharp criminal minds. These people help each other make lakhs in a day. They build fortunes worth crores. He explores this vast network, hidden from public view for years.
The book takes readers on a journey through cyber fraud. He takes them into the minds and lives of these poorly educated criminals earning lakhs every day. The author presents the material simply. People with little technical knowledge can understand how cybercrime works. The book covers not only the digital scams but the real people behind them. It gives the reader both sides. It gives the mechanics of the fraud and the lives behind it.
What stands out most is how the book does not stop at scam, scammer and victim. It goes further. It shows why these scammers do what they do. It shows what pushed them onto this path. Unemployment pushed many young people towards crime. So did a lack of funds for proper education. So did the absence of generational wealth. The biggest draw is easy money. Without education or hard work, these scammers earn more in a day than many educated people earn in years.
The author describes his experience, his investigation and his conversations within this network. He writes in a fun and engaging way. He adds humour. The writing keeps readers curious and turning pages. At many points the book is more informative than entertaining. The book strikes a balance between awareness and entertainment. It informs the reader. It also holds their attention throughout.
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