Fraud: Abhishek Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, MS Dhoni's PAN details stolen
What's the story
Delhi Police has busted a highly convoluted case of cyber fraud and scam.
Per reports, a group of criminals targeted the biggest celebrities of the country such as actors Madhuri Dixit, Abhishek Bachchan, Emraan Hashmi, Shilpa Shetty, and cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
The fraudsters allegedly procured PAN details of the celebrities from their GST Identification Numbers that are reportedly available in the public domain.
Plan
The criminals already spent Rs. 21.32L!
The criminals successfully got credit cards issued in the name of celebrities and were in touch with a Pune-based fintech start-up called One Card for the same.
In fact, the scammers had reportedly already purchased products worth Rs. 21.32 lakh before being nabbed.
The purchases triggered suspicion and led to the arrest of five people by the Delhi Police.
Further probe is currently underway.
Police's stance
The criminals 'worked together in an unusual manner'
The five criminals who have been nabbed are named Puneet, Mohd Asif, Sunil Kumar, Pankaj Mishar, and Vishwa Bhaskar Sharma, and Delhi Police's confidential sources suggest that "they worked in close coordination to defraud the company in a very unusual manner."
The police also suspect that "they may have used a similar modus operandi to get credit cards from other banks and financial institutions."
Plan's execution
The criminals reportedly got the PAN cards remade often
Finding out the PAN details wasn't reportedly difficult since the birth dates are available online.
Per police sources, "[The criminals] got the PAN cards remade fraudulently by using their own pictures so that during video verification, their looks match with the photo available on PAN/Aadhaar Card. For instance, the PAN card of Bachchan had his PAN and DOB but the accused's picture."
Video verification
The fraudsters received all the required information through CIBIL
The fraudsters had a well-knit plan in place to not get caught even during the video verification stage.
They reportedly forged all the Aadhaar details needed for the scam and subsequently, applied for credit cards in the fraud's last stage.
They also had access to all financial history courtesy of Credit Information Bureau India Limited (CIBIL), and hence, evaded the video verification smoothly.
Company's statement
One Card is also contributing to the ongoing probe
One Card representative said, "We came to know about this fraud when our system got an alert that multiple onboarding attempts were being made using a single device. The accused tried to onboard with us by using 83 PAN details from seven devices."
"Since an investigation into the matter is underway, we cannot comment further on it," said Shahadra DCP Rohit Meena.