Police in Deoghar arrested 11 cyber criminals from Pindari village at Sarath acting on a tip-off, the raids leading to the seizure of 25 mobile phones and 35 SIM cards, the action coming two days after eight cyber criminals were nabbed in the district.
One of the arrested, Abbas Sheikh, is also an accused in a cheating and fraud case pertaining to 2019 in Saraikela police station. Sheikh was booked under IPC 420 and Section 66C and D of the IT Act for fraudulent or dishonest use of electronic signatures, password and other unique identification features of a vicitm.
Talking to the media on Thursday, Deoghar SP Dhananjay Kumar Singh said, “The 11 persons arrested are between 19 and 27years, and had adopted the same modus operandi to dupe people as that of the eight persons arrested two days ago. They called to people posing as customer care executives of banks and financial institutions and demanded their Aadhaar and PAN details to ostensibly help them open an account on their behalf.”
Singh said the 11 arrested included Mujaffar Sheikh (22), Abbas Sheikh (26), Sagir Ansari (25), Nasruddin Ansari (27), Amman Ansari (19), Jubair Ansari (20), Sarafat Ansari (19), Shamser Ansari (25), Samir Ansari (19), Umakant Mandal (25) and Sonu Kumar Mandal (25). Thery used to also offer cash backs to phone pay customers and dupe them through other e-wallets like PayU Money, Free charge, DhaniPay and Gaming App-Dream Games.
Recovered mobile phones Gautam Dey
“The accused persons who have been sent to jail, also used to dupe people by adding the ATM card of the victim in the Add money section of the Phone Pe/paytm,” said Singh and added that criminals also used to convince customers to load remote access apps like Team Viewer and Quick Support and get access to OTPs received on mobile phones of the unsuspecting customers to transfer money from their bank account.
As apart of its crackdown on cyber crime, Deoghar police on February 15 arrested eight persons from different areas of the district, including Sonraythadi village in Sonraythadi, Moren village in Mohanpur, Adariya village in Devipur and Jhiluwa village in Budhai.
