Delhi Police with six people accused of running a customer care racket, at Police Headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday. , Photo Credit: ANI
The Delhi Police on Wednesday, April 19, 2023 said that it has arrested five people from Jamtara in Jharkhand and one more from Murshidabad in West Bengal for duping over 2,500 people of crores of rupees in a pan-India customer care fraud. Arrested on charges of
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North) Ravi Kumar Singh said Nizamuddin Ansari (23), Afroz Alam (23), Amir Ansari (22), Sarfaraz Ansari (22) and Afroz Ansari (22) were arrested from Jamtara on April 11. Was. Naseem Malitya (31), who had provided SIM cards to the other accused, was arrested from Murshidabad on April 16, he said.
March 22 complaint
According to the Delhi Police Cyber Crime Unit, the investigation into the scam began on March 22 following a complaint from a Dubai-based man who had been duped of ₹10 lakh.
Anil Nautiyal, 53, had told the police that he had come to the city to meet his daughter, who was studying at the Delhi Technological University. Desiring to update his State Bank of India (SBI) passbook, the complainant called the SBI customer care number found on Google.
According to the complaint, on the call with Mr Nautiyal, the person posing as an SBI executive told him that all services are now online and asked him to download a mobile application. After surreptitiously gaining remote access to Mr. Nautiyal’s phone through the app, the person got hold of his net banking credentials and siphoned off ₹10 lakh.
The DCP said that based on the complaint at Bawana Cyber Police Station, an FIR was registered under section 420 of the IPC.
“To trace the accused, call detail records of some phone numbers, IMEI numbers as well as money trail were analyzed with the help of banks.
“Following surveillance and technical leads, a team along with the Jharkhand Police raided Nawadih village in Jamtara district on April 11. The five accused were nabbed when they were making calls from an isolated spot in the village,” Mr Singh said. .
Based on inputs from Nizamuddin, one of the masterminds, a team along with him reached Murshidabad and arrested Mallya.
modified apps
According to the DCP, several SIM cards and 34 mobile phones were seized from the accused in Jamtara, while 21,761 SIM cards and nine mobile phones were seized from Mallya’s house.
IMEI numbers and SIM cards are being traced to trace the use of these numbers in cyber frauds.
Disclosing details of the operation, Mr Singh said the fraudsters had bought at least 12,500 pre-activated SIM cards from Murshidabad last year. They would then google the customer care numbers of several banks and online retailers into the numbers of these SIM cards.
“When people called on these numbers, the accused used to talk like professionals and asked them to download remote access app, modified and renamed with the bank [or online retailer’s] initials.
“Some customers used to download these apps and the accused used to ask them to log in to their net banking account. Once the accused are inside, they siphon off money in their multiple accounts,” he said.
The DCP said that out of the ₹10 lakh stolen from Mr. Nautiyal, over ₹9 lakh has been traced and the process to return it has been initiated, and the remaining ₹27,000 has been tracked with Flipkart .