The South Region Cyber Police have arrested two individuals from Nashik who were allegedly part of a gang that not only defrauded citizens on the pretext of offering part-time jobs but also involved in bank fraud operations across the nation.
According to the police, Himanshu More (21) and Prem Shewale (18) worked as waiters in Nashik but after their day jobs, they worked in an office set up where their primary work was making bank accounts where several transactions took place – on national and international level. Other than the duo, they have separate 'workers' who approach people via social media on the pretext of offering jobs. Ultimately, the task is to get money into desired bank accounts from where it's passed to a different direction via networks.
In the investigation, which started when a Colaba-based woman approached the police about losing Rs. 14.3 lakhs in cyber fraud, police soon realised the fraud product of a syndicate rather than a one-man job. With the arrest of the duo, which was done after tracing the bank accounts to which the Colaba woman sent the money as an investment, police discovered a network. “The pre-made network is where the arrested accused were included and apart from them, the other members too were daily-wage workers like waiters, delivery personnel, etc, who are told what to do and in return they are paid money,” said a police official, adding that per bank account would give them between Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 10,000.
When police raided their house, they found 29 debit cards, 28 account passbooks, 8 SIM cards, and 8 mobile phones.
During their interrogation, police found out that both More and Shewale were mere ‘workers’ who followed instructions ‘from above’ and both had no idea who was giving these instructions to them or who paid them. However, police intel received the information that the ‘higher ups’ of the accused were operating from Dubai. Most communications took place via the Telegram app, added a police official.
