A man has been arrested for allegedly selling One Time Passwords (OTPs), which police said were used to create e-wallets that played a key role in online frauds.
The police said the OTPs were sold for Rs 20 each through a group on Telegram.
Partha Saha, the accused, was arrested from Halisahar in North 24-Parganas district earlier this week. The police said he worked as a sales manager at a telecom company but lost his job during the pandemic.
He was allegedly found to be in possession of over 750 pre-activated SIM cards, which he apparently used to generate OTPs that were sold to online fraudsters.
The deputy commissioner (south-west) of Kolkata police, Swati Bhangalia, said they had arrested six others in connection with the racket.
The accused allegedly created fake identity cards, activated SIM cards with those cards and used the SIM cards to sell OTPs for creation of e-wallets.
“To create an e-wallet, you just need a phone number and the OTP generated on that number to validate the wallet. Saha, who had been illegally procuring pre-activated SIM cards, inserted them one after another into a mobile phone to generate OTPs. He would then sell the OTPs through a Telegram group,” said an investigator.
“Online fraudsters need e-wallets to transfer money from the bank accounts of their victims.”
Saha, the officer said, was selling the OTPs for Rs 20 each. “Once the online work was done, he would sell the SIM cards in-person for Rs 100 each.”
The police said they came to know about Saha while investigating a fraud of Rs 20.54 lakh that an elderly man had reported to Parnasree police station in southwest Kolkata’s Behala area in January.
Investigators said the fraudsters, who had remote access to the complainant’s phone, deactivated his number and linked a new number to his account. As a result, whenever they made a fraudulent transaction, the complainant would not receive any alert and the OTP would be generated in the new number.
“To execute the scheme, the fraudsters needed Saha to get the OTPs,” an officer said. “Saha was complicit in the crime, though we are not sure whether he received any part of the stolen amount.”