Seven arrested from Jharkhand,Punjab for duping over 100 as 'bank-employees'
What's the story
Seven people were arrested for allegedly duping over 100 people by masquerading as bank employees and collecting their bank details. One of the victims, Prabeer Kumar Basu, filed a complaint on July 10, alleging that he had received a call by a person who asked him for his card-details and pretended to be an SBI employee. Subsequently, Rs. 50,000 was deducted from his account.
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These were the accused
The accused were identified as Majer Sing (29), Varinder Singh (25), Abhishek Sharma (25), Mohammad Salim (28), Mohammad Abdul Rahim (33), Mohammad Mumtaz Ansari (26) and Jagannath Mandal (45), said Ajit Kumar Singla, the Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime).
Modus operandi
Accused used to make fake calls to innocent people
Three persons were arrested from Punjab, while another was nabbed from Jharkhand's Jamtara district. The four later disclosed the details of their other associates in Jamtara. The accused revealed that they used to make calls from Jharkhand to gullible people and collect their debit and credit card information by masquerading as bank employees on the pretext of renewing cards, Singla said.
Duped money
Accused used to load duped money in their digital wallets
The accused then used to load the duped money in their digital wallets, which were opened by them on their phones using SIM cards registered on fake IDs. Then they used to transfer this money into the online wallets of their associates, Singla said. Subsequently, their associates transferred the cash into several online wallets so that they could not be traced, he said.
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Mandal started indulging in cyber-fraud due to poor financial condition
The prime accused, Jagannath Mandal, hails from Jharkhand's Jamtara district. Due to poor financial condition, he started indulging in cyber fraud since 2015, along with his other associates from the district and other states, Singla said.