Mumbai: The Oshiwara police have busted a gang of cybercriminals who would allegedly set up bank accounts using bogus documents and then sell these accounts to other criminals for as less as Rs 10,000 each.
According to the Oshiwara police, the module was busted when they were probing a case of cybercrime, where an Andheri based woman lost around Rs two lakh earlier this month.
“The woman had been expecting a courier and searched online for the courier company’s customer care number. She dialled the first number she saw in the search results and the person on the other end, while assuring that he would help her, convinced her to open a Google Pay link he shared with her. This resulted in Rs 1.90 lakh being debited from her account immediately,” said senior police inspector Manohar Dhanawade, Oshiwara police station.
The victim subsequently registered a complaint with the Oshiwara police station, and the police ascertained that the accused had replaced the courier company’s contact number with their own, enabling the fraud. Based on technical investigation, the police arrested Firoz Alam Gulzar (19), Jameel Ansari (35) and Nemulhaq Ansari (34) from Santacruz and Bandra. The arrests were made between June 25 to June 30.
“After Jameel and Nemulhaq were arrested, we searched their houses and found a stash of 29 debit cards, seven mobile handsets, 15 SIM cards and a large amount of cheque books and passbooks. We questioned the accused about the evidence recovered from their houses and during this time, they revealed that they were running a side racket,” Dhanawade said.
The duo, in their confession, have allegedly said that they would procure SIM cards using fraudulent identity and residence proof documents, which they would then use to set up bank accounts in various banks all over the city. The accused had also made it known among the shady circles of cybercriminals and fraudsters that they had bank accounts available for use, should anyone require them. Police officials said that it has been observed in a great many number of cybercrime cases that the perpetrators prefer to use bank accounts with no connection to them to receive the money they obtain through various crimes. This makes it hard for the authorities to trace and apprehend them.
“According to our inquiries so far, Jameel has sold 17 such accounts to various people, while Nemulhaq has sold 12, for Rs 10,000 each. We are working on tracing and apprehending all these people and are also in touch with the banks where these accounts were opened so that necessary steps can be taken,” Dhanawade said.
Jameel and Nemulhaq have been remanded in police custody till Saturday, while Firoz, who was the first to be arrested, is currently in judicial custody, officers said.
