Kingpin of inter-state cybercrime gang nailed

Advertisement

Chandigarh, January 14

The cybercrime police today claimed to have arrested the kingpin of an inter-state gang involved in creating fake helplines of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSEB) and fraudulently withdrawing money from the bank accounts of their victims.

Made Rs 50 lakh by cheating people

The accused has made about Rs 50 lakh through his cybercrime activities as well as other illegal works all over India. He used the ill-gotten money to fund the election campaign of his father, purchase luxury cars and to build a new house.

Modus operandi

• The accused mention their mobile numbers as fake customer helpline of the PSPCL
• They tell victims that there are some issues with regard to bill payment, new connection, etc, and make the latter install Remote Access Apps (Any Desk, Quick Support)
• This way, they get access to the bank accounts of their victims and fraudulently withdraw money

A team of the cybercrime police was sent to Jharkhand and Yar Mohammad, alias Guddu Raza, of Deoghar, was arrested on January 10. He was produced before the court that sent him to five-day police remand.

During investigation, it came to light that Guddu’s father, Noshad, is the Sarpanch of Mathadangal village and also Pardhan of the Gram Panchayat. The accused is a habitual cybercriminal. When the cybercrime police of his area conducted a raid to nab him, they were attacked by his accomplices. A case under Sections 147, 148, 149, 341, 323, 353 and 307 of the IPC was registered against Guddu and his accomplices at Palajori, Deoghar, in 2019. They were later released from the jail.

The accused has made about Rs 50 lakh through his cybercrime activities as well as other illegal works all over India. He used the ill-gotten money to fund the election campaign of his father, purchase luxury cars and to build a new house in his village.

The case was registered in September, 2022, under Sections 419, 420 and 120B of the IPC. A victim had reported that he had purchased a flat at Signature Towers, Sector 66-A, Mohali, and needed a PSPCL meter for it. He searched for a customer helpline number (7008677490) of the PSPCL on Google and rang it up. The man who attended the call, posed as PSPCL representative Amit Kumar.

He asked the victim to transfer Rs 25 as online charges for the PSPCL services. He also asked the victim to link his Google Pay UPI of the State Bank of India and HDFC accounts on the CRED app. When the victim did all what Amit had asked for, the latter fraudulently withdrew Rs 3,26,000 in separate transactions from the complainant’s account.

Twelve persons were already arrested in the case from UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal and a fake call centre running at Kharagpur was busted. Twentytwo mobile phones were recovered. It was revealed that IMEIs of these phones were linked to 2,879 cybercrime complaints filed across India. During the interrogation of the persons arrested from Kharagpur, it was revealed that they were working at the behest of Guddu, who ran the whole gang and managed the ill-gotten money.