Rachakonda: Interstate online fraudsters arrested

Rachakonda: Thecybercrimewing of Rachakonda police on Monday brought 10 persons from Deoghar district (Jharkand), allegedly involved in cyber fraud, on prisoner transit warrant and sent them to judicial custody. The gang members was involved in many online frauds.

The accused were Zamil Ansari (26), Barzahan Ansari (32), Akhlak Hussain (27), Sarfaraz Ansari (23), Siraj Ansari (41), Sushil Mandal (30), Suni Kumar Das (24), Shekar Kumar Das (19), Vinod Das (19) and Ramcharan Das (20).

The police said "the gang purchased SIM cards from different places and posted the numbers as the customer care numbers of Gpay, Phonepe, various e-commerce shopping sites, banks and other online services on Google. When a customer contacted these numbers, by searching for them on Google, the gang impersonate as customer care executives of the companies and promised to refund the amount. Thus, the gang siphoned off money of gullible persons from their bank accounts.

Mahesh Bhagwat, Rachakonda Police Commissioner, said "the gang would tell callers that there was a cash back offer and sent them notifications to confirm their Phonepe, Gpay, or Paytm numbers. The accused instructed customers to open a new Gpay, Phonepe and Paytm apps and asked them to enter bank, UPI pin and other details. They fraudulently transferred money to their accounts."

The gang forced gullible customers to install apps, like TeamViewer, Quick Support and AnyDesk through which it gained remote access to their mobile phones and transferred money into their accounts, which was procured fraudulently. Later, the money was transferred to e-commerce wallets and Paytm accounts.

"The gang also was involved in sending fake KYC updates by targeting job-seekers. For committing such a fraud, it sent bulk messages to several phone numbers of customers that were collected from third parties. The messages were drafted in such a way that, it would frighten a customer because the messages read as, 'your number, Paytm, and bank accounts KYC are being suspended due to technical error'. People were instructed to contact a WhatsApp number to update their KYC. If any person did so the gang sent links to Team viewer, Quick Support, or Any Desk apps and gained remote access to their mobile phones," added the officer.

They also posted ads on social media platforms and dating apps and provided contact numbers for chats, call girls and escort services. Once a person contacted them, the gang threatened to upload their chat video on social media and blackmailed them. They collected information on job-seekers from third parties and sent bulk SMSs. Once they responded, it told them that their resume had been shortlisted by reputed companies and asked for money.

Said the police, "the gang members operated across the country, including Telangana and AP. They confessed that, after committing offences, they changed their numbers and phones to escape from the police net."