The Matunga police have arrested two men from Delhi and one from Jharkhand for allegedly defrauding several people online by approaching them as bank employees. The trio’s modus-operandi was to send text messages, with a phishing link to potential targets. The message asked to visit the link and update the KYC for getting the account unblocked.
Scared or sweet-talked targets into submission
They would follow-up with a call. “They either scared the targets saying their account will be blocked or sweet-talked and took the one time password (OTP) to access banking credentials,” said the official.
The crime came to fore when a 64-year-old man from Matunga approached the police after losing Rs1 lakh in December last year. The cyber cops swung into action mode and acquired the subscriber details record (SDR), call details record (CDR), and location details of the suspects. They also managed to identify the account to which the elderly's money was transferred.”
Three accused held, involved in eight similar offences
The account also reflected several transactions made to buy premium mobile phones. One such order was traced to Delhi. A team went to the national capital and was successful in nabbing two suspects when they came to pick their new phones.
The duo was identified as Saif Ali Usman Ali, 23, and Mohammad Kalam Ansari, 22. While Ali claims to have a business, Ansari is a student. While interrogating them, the police found about their third accomplice from Jharkhand. He was identified as Arunkumar Naresh Mandal, 24, a farmer. Two mobile phones worth around Rs1 lakh were seized from them.
The probe has found their involvement in eight similar offences registered in five states. Two more suspects are on the run.
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