BHOPAL: Cyber police on Wednesday arrested two men who frequently used the ‘Truecaller’ app siphoned off more than Rs 34 lakh from the accounts of two businessmen.
ADG Sai Manohar addressing media persons said the police team arrested the kingpin Virendra Sahu from Rudrapur in Uttrakhand, while his aide Sushoban Battacharya was arrested from Kolkata. Police have received two complaints from businessmen claiming that a huge amount was transferred from their bank accounts. Sharing their accused modus operandi, the ADG said that the fraudsters accused posing as owners of the firms would call up the bank managers and citing urgency ask them to transfer the amount from the firms’ account.
In June 2020, the one of the two accused posing as an owner of a firm called up the manager of a private bank asking him to transfer Rs 28 lakh into another account. The caller told the manager that he needed the amount urgently. The manager after completing the required procedure transferred the money.
The fraudster following the same modus operandi, duped another businessman in October. The accused called up a manager of a private bank and requested him to transfer Rs 6.80 lakh from ‘his’ account into another account. The bank manager, understanding the urgency, transferred the amount to another account.
The fraud came to fore when the real account holders called up the bank inquiring about the amount transferred from their respective accounts. The two bank managers told the businessman that they had received the call from the phone number registered with the bank and the amount was transferred on their (caller) instruction following all the SOPs.
During investigation, police found that the fraudsters had registered the mobile number in the name of the firm owner on the ‘Truecaller’. So whenever anyone and the bank managers had received their call or even when they called them back, the name of the firm owner displayed.
The fraudsters had followed the Bank Standard Operating Procedure very carefully. They had obtained the cheque number of the firm, bank account and other confidential information of the firm. And when the bank managers asked them about account details, they easily shared it. When asked, the crooks even furnished the copies of the cancelled cheque and other required details
A team headed by SP Vaibhav Shrivastava and led by inspector Abhishek Sonekar arrested the two accused .
