Bihar’s Nawada district has emerged as the epicentre of one of India’s most bizarre recurring cyber frauds, the “All India Pregnant Job Service” scam in which unemployed men across the country were lured through Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram advertisements promising ₹5 to ₹13 lakh, and even a 2BHK flat, to impregnate childless women.
The fraud came to light after Nawada police received an anonymous tip, with Superintendent of Police Abhinav Dhiman confirming that the accused collected a “registration fee” from victims under the guise of a legitimate service.
In the most recent bust reported in January 2026, two individuals, including a minor, were arrested in Nawada district, making this the latest in a string of crackdowns on the same racket. This follows earlier arrests in January 2025, when three men were held, and December 2024, when eight were apprehended by a Special Investigation Team. The mastermind of the 2024 operation, Munna Kumar, remains at large, and police warn the scam continues to resurface under new operators.
How the Trap Was Set
Men were contacted on social media platforms and offered what appeared to be a lucrative opportunity. Interested individuals were first asked to pay a registration fee of ₹799, after which they were sent photographs of women and asked to choose a partner they wished to impregnate. “The men were told that they will be given ₹13 lakh if the woman gets pregnant. They were promised a consolation price of ₹5 lakh even if they failed,” said Kalyan Anand, Superintendent of Police, Nawada.
After registration, participants were instructed to deposit a security amount ranging from ₹5,000 to ₹20,000, depending on how “attractive” the chosen woman was. The demands did not stop there. Victims were subsequently asked to pay for hotel bookings and other fabricated expenses. When some refused, the scammers turned to blackmail.
The human cost is vivid: 27-year-old labourer Mukesh Kumar from Vaishali, whose wife was three months away from delivering their first child, lost all his savings to the scheme. “I just thought I could utilise this time and the money,” he said. The cruelty of the irony was not lost his phone’s caller tune, it was reported, was an alert warning against scam calls.
From Fake Cures to Cyber Crime Syndicates
Nawada district has long been a hotbed of scams, swindles, and schemes. In the early 2000s, newspapers and pamphlets were flooded with advertisements for cancer-curing panaceas and energy-boosting capsules filled with flour. When televisions became common in rural Bihar, scammers promoted “Pahchan Kaun” cons using blurred images of celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, promising prizes of lakhs to anyone who could identify them.
Today, platforms like Facebook, Telegram, and WhatsApp have simply modernised the cons. Nawada has witnessed a surge in cyber crime, from 18 FIRs filed in 2019–20 to 81 in 2024–25, according to district administration data. “Crime has become a status symbol in this region,” said DSP Jyoti, who led the January 2025 raids on Kahuara village.
A senior police officer noted: “You may arrest a hundred people for such bizarre cases and still find the 101st person using the scam’s name to extort money.” The most recent 2025 bust involved four arrests, with a video of a young woman promoting the scheme being circulated on social media to attract more victims. Bihar’s cyber wing is now coordinating with the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) to trace the wider network, and police have urged victims many of whom stay silent out of shame to come forward.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
What makes the “All India Pregnant Job” scam so deeply unsettling is not merely its audacity, but the mirror it holds up to the society that makes such frauds possible. Scammers did not stumble upon a random premise, they meticulously mapped the intersection of rampant unemployment, financial desperation, infertility stigma, and limited digital literacy, and then weaponised it.
The men who fell victim are not foolish; they are the product of a system that has failed to provide dignified livelihoods to millions of young people, leaving them vulnerable to any promise of escape, however implausible it may seem in hindsight. The fact that this scam has resurfaced repeatedly with new operators and new victims in the same district within the span of two years tells us that arrests alone cannot dismantle the structural conditions that breed such exploitation.
We need sustained investment in digital literacy, robust social security for the unemployed, and compassionate, stigma-free reporting mechanisms that encourage victims to seek justice without fear of ridicule. It is equally important that we resist the temptation to mock those who were deceived, that mockery only ensures the next victim stays silent.
